Are you up for the lunar eclipse?
Total Lunar Eclipse Early This Morning!
The moon will be playing hide and seek for about half an hour on early this morning. A perfect celestial alignment will cause a Total Lunar Eclipse to occur just before dawn.
A TOTAL eclipse occurs wtih a three-way alignment of the Sun, Earth, and moon. The Earth blocks the sunlight from reaching the moon, allowing for the moon to pass through Earth's 'shadow' for about 1-2 hours.
Look for the moon to enter the Earth's shadow at around 4:51 AM. The moon will gradually shrink until 5:52 AM when it will be fully inside Earth's shadow. The moon will be at its greatest eclipse around 6:32 AM, however, sunrise will occur at around 6:55 AM. As dawn approaches, the moon will sink over the horizon, so the best time to view the total eclipse will be between 6:00 and 6:30 AM, Tuesday.
Strangely, the moon doesn't fully disappear. Instead, the light reaching the moon has to pass through a dense portion of Earth's atmosphere. In doing so, most of the shorter wavelengths (violet, blue) are refracted out leaving only the shorter ones (red, orange). As a result, the moon will have a redish tint to it when it is fully eclipsed!
Clouds are much thinner than first anticipated. Visibility should be good in most regions, but some patchy clouds/fog may hinder perfect viewing from time to time.
Our next total eclipse of the moon will not be until Febuary 21, 2008. After that, we won't see another total lunar eclipse in the US until 2010.
The moon will be playing hide and seek for about half an hour on early this morning. A perfect celestial alignment will cause a Total Lunar Eclipse to occur just before dawn.
A TOTAL eclipse occurs wtih a three-way alignment of the Sun, Earth, and moon. The Earth blocks the sunlight from reaching the moon, allowing for the moon to pass through Earth's 'shadow' for about 1-2 hours.
Look for the moon to enter the Earth's shadow at around 4:51 AM. The moon will gradually shrink until 5:52 AM when it will be fully inside Earth's shadow. The moon will be at its greatest eclipse around 6:32 AM, however, sunrise will occur at around 6:55 AM. As dawn approaches, the moon will sink over the horizon, so the best time to view the total eclipse will be between 6:00 and 6:30 AM, Tuesday.
Strangely, the moon doesn't fully disappear. Instead, the light reaching the moon has to pass through a dense portion of Earth's atmosphere. In doing so, most of the shorter wavelengths (violet, blue) are refracted out leaving only the shorter ones (red, orange). As a result, the moon will have a redish tint to it when it is fully eclipsed!
Clouds are much thinner than first anticipated. Visibility should be good in most regions, but some patchy clouds/fog may hinder perfect viewing from time to time.
Our next total eclipse of the moon will not be until Febuary 21, 2008. After that, we won't see another total lunar eclipse in the US until 2010.
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Yup. I have the camera ready. I just hope I make it. I can't seem to see straight. 0 -
going on right now! can't get the camera to focus. 0 -
watch out for those critters that come out when it's dark[:D] 0 -
I've got a few pictures of it already. Seems my camera focused best in "Simple Mode".
I have enough optical zoom to get up close, but it get's way out of focus. This is the best I've got...
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Just got done watching it[8D] 0 -
Got some good pics up to full eclipse. I am going to bed. I decided that if I want to see the shadow slide off the other side I will turn my pics 180 degrees. 0 -
Perfect Totality right now - clear as a bell here in the Great NorthWest!! 0 -
Up at 5:30 every morning so not up just for the eclipse... 0 -
cloudy in se ohio..[V]..Loko..great pics cubs![:D] 0
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