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Google and Slooh To Broadcast Lunar Eclipse

Posted by samzenpus on from the dark-side-of-the-moon dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Today Google and Slooh, the online Space Camera, are broadcasting a live online feed of the total lunar eclipse starting at 2:00 PM EDT. The live feed can be accessed at Slooh's Mission Interface and also as a featured video stream on Google's channel on YouTube. Live audio narration by astronomy experts will accompany the live feed. This online astronomy collaboration will allow people all over the world to watch this rare celestial event."

32 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. OK folks, crank up the Pink Floyd! by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    Dark Side of the Moon. Some good headphones. I'm there!

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. How to see the unseeable by nani+popoki · · Score: 1

    Given that this eclipse will not be visible in North America, that's good news.

  3. Mission confidence . . . by wrencherd · · Score: 1

    . . . of anyone actually getting to view same after it gets touted on /. must be pretty low.

    . . .click . . . reload . . . reload . . . reload . . .

    1. Re:Mission confidence . . . by wrencherd · · Score: 1

      . . . cat, fart, nut kicking and farting cat getting kicked in the nuts videos . . .

      Thank goodness someone has finally subscribed to my channel!

    2. Re:Mission confidence . . . by qubezz · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is nothing compared to the hordes of users uploading cat, fart, nut kicking and farting cat getting kicked in the nuts videos daily. I'm pretty sure the servers will perceive this slashdot effect as a slight tickle.

      Wrong, slashdot just broke youtube:

      500 Internal Server Error

      Sorry, something went wrong.

      A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.

  4. Slooh? by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    Gesundheit!

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  5. Rare? by FrostedWheat · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't have considered lunar eclipses all that rare.

    1. Re:Rare? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      From the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2011_lunar_eclipse)

      "This is a relatively rare central lunar eclipse where the center point of Earth's shadow is on the disk. The last time a lunar eclipse was closer to the center of the earth's shadow was on July 16, 2000. The next central total lunar eclipse will be on July 27, 2018."

    2. Re:Rare? by treeves · · Score: 1

      This.
      If I counted correctly there were 82 total lunar eclipses in the twentieth century, so nearly one every year on average. Some years actually had two, but there were many gaps greater than one year.

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
    3. Re:Rare? by arunce · · Score: 1

      I have seen at least 3 or 4 full moon eclipses last 15 years.

    4. Re:Rare? by QuasiSteve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The rarity is in actually getting to see it. For most of North America, it's on the wrong side of the planet right now.

      For large parts of Europe, cloud cover is ruining things.

      So while there may be one almost every year, the number that you could see from your location is much lower, and the number that you actually -can- see, due to clouds or fog or whatever, is lower still.

    5. Re:Rare? by Threni · · Score: 1

      Sounds a bit dull to me. Some things just don't translate that well to a computer monitor.

    6. Re:Rare? by treeves · · Score: 1

      True, but when one says something is not rare, one usually refers to the existence not being uncommon, not my ability to witness it.
      Example: jury trials are common occurrences, but I've never seen one myself except as portrayed in movies and TV shows. I would not say jury trials are rare because I haven't seen one.

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  6. Late Announcement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why did they wait until the day of the event to announce it? Thank god for slashdot!

    1. Re:Late Announcement? by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Eclipse schedules are known decades or even centuries in advance, and they are available on hundreds of sites all over the 'net. Here's one

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      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  7. Re:So by jdastrup · · Score: 1

    I guess you've never seen one. The moon appears a brownish/orange, not black. It actually looks very similar to the full moon during a wildfire when the sky is full of ash/smoke. Or, if you live in some polluted overpopulated Asian city, every night.

    Anyway, It's cool to see, at least once. I'd rather wait 10 years to see it where I live, then watch a video or travel somewhere to see it.

  8. Re:So by arunce · · Score: 1

    No... it will range from brown to orange, maybe a bit grey... nothing more.

  9. Re:SLASHVERTISEMENT by Sinthet · · Score: 1

    Google will be streaming via Youtube, so you can check it out for free if you're so inclined.

  10. Re:SLASHVERTISEMENT by Dahamma · · Score: 1

    It's not a pay service, it's an ad-supported service. I don't see what's wrong with that - instead of some project coming out of NASA's budget, a company is showing you ads to pay for it.

    Though I wish they had found a better advertiser than Transformers 3. I'm half-expecting Michael Bay to blow up the moon mid-eclipse now...

  11. Could be worse. by Animats · · Score: 1

    At least it's not Apple behind this. They'd be announcing an iEclipse(tm) of the iMoon (tm). And it would be pay per view.

    1. Re:Could be worse. by ideaz · · Score: 1

      only on Macs running ver 10.6.7 and above.

  12. Re:SLASHVERTISEMENT by jc42 · · Score: 1

    It's not a pay service, it's an ad-supported service. I don't see what's wrong with that - ...

    Well, I do. ;-) I decided to give it a try, and so far I've seen the dorky ad for their new image search feature over a dozen times, but so far no sign of any eclipse video. The bar at the top says it's "live from 11am to 3pm PDT", which started a few minutes ago, so I'm wondering if it's not working, or if I have to register for something to see it, or what. I firt tried it with firefox on this Macbook, then when that failed, switched to chrome, which behaves exactly the same way.

    Anyone know what magic button you need to press to see the eclipse?

    Yeah, I thought maybe I should maybe wait an hour or so, but then I'd miss the grand beginning. I suspect that big button in the middle with a check mark and a URL that starts with "http://www.youtul" might have something to do with it, but if it really is a button, it doesn't seem to do anything at all.

    Somehow, I doubt that we've slashdotted google's server farm ... '-)

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  13. How long until we see this headline? by jmcwork · · Score: 1

    "Google to initiate lunar eclipse"

    1. Re:How long until we see this headline? by jc42 · · Score: 1

      "Google to initiate lunar eclipse"

      What I'm looking for is the flame wars over what effect this eclipse will have on global warming (oops, I mean climate change), whether Obama or Bush (or God) is responsible for the moon going dark, and the many other such threads that infest most discussions here.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  14. Re:SLASHVERTISEMENT by jc42 · · Score: 1

    lrn2adblock

    Can you do that with Chrome? ;-)

    Actually, I started with Firefox, which has AdblockPlus installed. I told it to enable everything for the http://www.youtube.com/google "site", which didn't change anything. Then I changed to Chrome, which as far as I can tell, doesn't do ad blocking (BICBW).

    In any case, what does this have to do with my question, which is "How do I watch the eclipse"? Further poking around at various things on the page hasn't resulted in enlightenment. Or any change in behavior, for that matter.

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  15. Someone please tell me who is commentating by Nuskrad · · Score: 1

    He is hilarious!

    1. Re:Someone please tell me who is commentating by chemicaldave · · Score: 4, Funny

      He just disclosed that Buzz Aldrin's urine bag in one of his boots broke when he took his first step on the moon. Poor guy.

    2. Re:Someone please tell me who is commentating by Mystic+Pixel · · Score: 1

      From TFA: "Nationally renowned astronomer Bob Berman will host the four-hour spectacle with live audio narration starting at 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT. He will be joined by several guests throughout the show, including Duncan Copp, a presenter for BBC and National Geographic and director-producer of many astronomy films and TV shows including "In the Shadow of the Moon", an award-wining film about the Apollo astronauts."

    3. Re:Someone please tell me who is commentating by Mystic+Pixel · · Score: 1

      Have you ever been to youtube? The chat is just like a concentrated version of the standard comment idiocy on that site.

  16. A tradition like no other..... by TheDukePatio · · Score: 1

    Tuned into the live you tube feed....it's riveting. Kinda like Bob Ross and his happy trees announcing for The Masters.

    oh...and good job on the app....I'm watching it on my XOO....oh wait...I'm not....can't get the app on the XOOM. Stupid unsupported devices. Stupid fragmentation

    --
    To Alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
  17. Live feed down! by Captain.Abrecan · · Score: 1

    The live feed as well as Google's YouTube Homepage is down. That's hilarious.

  18. Re:SLASHVERTISEMENT by jc42 · · Score: 1

    Well, the "live" link suddenly worked a while ago, after I'd been away from the screen for a while. I got the darkened moon (and 3 stars) on the screen then. Now, the left (east) edge of the moon is getting brighter.

    The image does seem to jump around occasionally. A start that was at the right edge disappeared after one jump, then reappeared after the next. It's gone again now, and there don't seem to be any more stars visible. I'm guessing that the light level is being adjusted to match the moon's brightest areas, and we may see no more stars.

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.