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The Best Way To Watch the "Blood Moon" Tonight

Posted by samzenpus on from the good-omens dept.

An anonymous reader writes "People on the West Coast should be able to watch the beginning of the upcoming total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:20 pm. The entirety of the moon surface will be in Earth's shadow and start to glow red a couple hours later, a little after midnight. From the article: 'A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon, and Earth align so that Earth's shadow falls across the moon's surface. Monday night's lunar eclipse is a total eclipse, which means Earth's shadow will cover the moon completely. The moon won't be blacked out by our planet's shadow. Instead, it will take on a reddish hue — anywhere from a bright copper to the brownish red of dried blood.'"

21 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by Streetlight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I love it when information gives the time of day but not the time zone. Is this 10:20 PM in Eastern Australia or U. S. EDT or what?

    --
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
    1. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      "People on the West Coast should be able to watch the beginning of the upcoming total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:20 pm." Implies either PST or PDT. I know that it begins at roughly 2 AM EDT.

    2. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by khellendros1984 · · Score: 2

      To watch the whole show from start to finish, your moon gazing should begin at 10:20 p.m. PDT

      (FTA). OK, so maybe they should've included the information in the summary too. If it starts at 22:20 PDT, then it's starting at 01:20 EDT.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    3. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Informative

      The article makes it clear that it's PDT, but even without reading the article, the fact that the link is to the LA Times and the summary is talking about the "West Coast" should have been a good indication of the time zone in question.

    4. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "People on the West Coast should be able to watch the beginning of the upcoming total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:20 pm." Implies either PST or PDT.

      Do you have any idea how many West Coasts there are?

    5. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by parkinglot777 · · Score: 2

      So American people now refer Tampa, FL as west coast??? The context for other than Americans may be ambiguous, but for most Americans, it should be understandable unless ...

    6. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by gmclapp · · Score: 2

      Pedantic. If you pretend to not know what "West Coast" means in the US people are going to think you're a moron.

      --
      Common Sense (+1)
    7. Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      No. Times for astronomical events are very often given in UTC, to avoid exactly the confusion which is occurring here. In any case, the time zone should always be specified to avoid ambiguity.

      You're arguing against a straw man, I'm afraid, since we're largely on the same page, from what I can tell.

      For instance, you're arguing that timezones should be specified, to which I completely agree. You've suggested as well that UTC should be used in cases such as these, and, once again, I strongly agree. Re-read my previous comment, and you should see that I provided no defense for the practice of omitting time zones.

      Rather, what I did say was that I believed there were sufficient context clues available to determine what time zone was being used, despite it having not been explicitly stated. By no means am I defending the omission; I'm merely pointing out that despite the omission, a Slashdot reader should have still been capable of determining the time zone. I'm uncertain why anyone would disagree with that assessment, given that the context clues are plainly obvious.

  2. I'm going to have an excellent seat by wwphx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll be watching the eclipse from the catwalk of a 3.5 meter telescope while said telescope shoots a laser at the moon and bounces the beam off of five retroreflectors. Weather permitting. It's awesome having a wife who's an astronomer/PhD.

    --
    When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
    1. Re:I'm going to have an excellent seat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      And light has no mass! How does it bounce off mirrors? OMG!

    2. Re:I'm going to have an excellent seat by smooth+wombat · · Score: 2

      shoots a laser at the moon and bounces the beam off of five retroreflectors.

      Big Bang Theory quote time:

      Zack: One question. How can you be sure it won't blow up?

      Leonard: The laser?

      Zack: The moon.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    3. Re:I'm going to have an excellent seat by wwphx · · Score: 2

      Actually, the Big Bang people heard of a talk by Dr. Tom Murphy (UCSD) who's in charge of this lunar laser ranging thing called APOLLO (http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/apollo.html) and contacted him for info on how to do the BBT ep. My wife was also the closing segment on the 2008 Mythbusters lunar landing hoax episode, and I did a ten-minute documentary on the laser at my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Wa.... Originally the Mythbusters wanted to build their own rig, but when they found out the cost and accuracy required they decided it was better to spend a few days traveling to New Mexico, it also gave them a chance to evaluate the gear that they were going to use for their first Alaska Special. Apparently Adam had a really bad problem with the high altitude of the observatory, Apache Point is at 9200', not an uncommon problem.

      --
      When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
    4. Re:I'm going to have an excellent seat by Boronx · · Score: 2

      Just reverse the polarity of the inertial dampeners.

      --
      Play Command HQ online
  3. Stop calling it 'blood moon'! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    it's a f'in LUNAR ECLIPSE.
    What is it with everyone suddenly having the need to give natural events cutsie, abstract, or dramatic names? Kinda like when the media started calling larger than average full moons Super Moons, or any cold spell in winter the 'polar vortex'.

    1. Re:Stop calling it 'blood moon'! by jaymz666 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Suddenly, it's been called a blood moon for quite some time...

    2. Re:Stop calling it 'blood moon'! by schneidafunk · · Score: 4, Informative

      Indeed it does originate from a long time ago. There's this quote from the bible, Joel 2:31 (Common English Bible):
      " The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.".

      Or it could also be a reference to the folklore name 'red moon'. Every full moon has a 'cutsie, abstract, or dramatic name' which predates modern astronomy.
      http://earthsky.org/astronomy-...

      --
      Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
  4. A contender for "dumbest headline ever" by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Best Way To Watch the "Blood Moon" Tonight

    ...is with your eyes, at the appropriate time. Don't bother looking earlier; it won't have happened yet! Similarly, if you try to catch the eclipse after it's finished, you'll just see an ordinary full moon.

    Get it? Got it? Good.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. Re:Trembling in fear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Any Christian pastor that claims to know the time of the end of the world hasn't read their Bible carefully enough.

    "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."

    - Mark 13:31-32

  6. Trollolololol! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What annoys me is that this is happening on a weeknight. Seriously??? Can't anyone think this sort of thing through??? The majority of interested parties have either work or school the next day.

    We need to petition to get these events to happen on weekends, so people can stay up late for them without severe disruption of their lives.

  7. Yeah, by kevlar_rat · · Score: 2

    we should kick them off Terra

    --
    Moderated Usenet
  8. Re:The Best Way To View The Blood Moon by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    How about you go outside, look around, and see if anyone is selling a sarcasm detector?

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect