Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

[Steven Cedrone]

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2004Oct28/TLE2004Oct28.html

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/eclipse_041027.html

"The last eclipse of 2004 occurs on the evening of Wednesday, October 27 (in Europe, the eclipse occurs during the early morning hours of Thursday, October 28 ). This event is a total eclipse of the Moon which will be visible from North and South America as well as Europe, Africa and Antarctica."

Enjoy!

Steve

[rocky_raher]

My morning commute DJ said the peak would be at 11:04 pm, EDT.

[TheOrange]

Had this one on my calendar for about two months now! Probably going to drive out into the desert to watch it without the city lights getting in the way.

From space.com (AZ time)
7:14 p.m.: Moon enters Earth’s dark umbral shadow
8:23 p.m.: Totality begins
9:04 p.m.: Mid-eclipse
9:45 p.m.: Totality ends

[Kati Compton]

The sky is currently COMPLETELY covered by clouds where I am. Grr!

[TheOrange]

mostly here too - that's a good thing though. If I miss an eclipse because its raining in this god-awful desert, than so be it. I can wait a few years.

[JackTheTripper]

I heard this morning that this will be the most televised lunar eclipse ever because it's the moon will be rising over the ball park durring the world series game.

[Prevost]

The sky is currently COMPLETELY covered by clouds where I am. Grr!
Murphy's Law at work.

Here in Panama October is the most rainy month of the whole year. At this time the moon is still visible, though behind high clouds.

BTW, has anyone of you ever seen a solar eclipse?

[Prevost]

It has started 8:15 pm local time (GMT-5) The sky is clear.

[PetiteFlower]

Wow that's weird. You're so far away (Panama) but it's the same time zone.

Anyway there is a spotty cloud cover here. I went outside about 10:30 and it was hard to see....I could see the moon through the clouds but I think I missed the cool part. I think I misunderstood the guys on the radio, I thought they said it was going to begin around 9:30 and be total around 10:30...must have meant it would be total at 9:30 and over at 10:30? From what I could see it looked like it was almost over, the moon was nearly full again, but it was cool I could see it through the clouds just dimly, looked neat :)

I wish my bedroom was on the other side of the house though :)

[ctmagnus]

Not a cloud in the sky here tonight. Very pretty! :D

[Darius Wey]

Some pictures would be neat for those who missed out. :D

[Steven Cedrone]

Cloudy here...

Oh well...

Here are some pics of the "World Series Eclipse" (http://www.space.com/spacewatch/eclipse_wrap_041027.html)

Steve

[Darius Wey]

Those are pretty funny images. :silly:

One looks like a sausage, while the other...well, you can see for yourself. ;)

I thought the moon was green for a second :crazyeyes:

[Kati Compton]

http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_15may03_page3.html

If you scroll down to Lloyd Overcash, he's got some really crisp photos.

[TheOrange]

rain rain rain - no eclipse for me :(

[delfuhd]

We had clouds as it was being shadowed, but Murphy's Law seemed to fade because the clouds passed all the way just as it started to turn red :D

Here's my horrible attempt at capturing the moment
http://kasper.sphosting.com/pics/crap/Eclipse.JPG (Big picture)

I used a wooden fence post as a tripod lol, and my camera's only 3.2 megapixels and I had the digital zoom on, so a lot of quality is obviously lost.... but oh well

EDIT:The direct link doesn't seem to be working, but if you copy+paste the link to a new browser, it should work...

[KimVette]

I used to be really into astronomy, but I've always found a lunar eclipse to be one of the most boring astronomical events. Why? It looks like a crescent moon -- as if I haven't seen that many times before. I have to admit I did go outside to glance at it for a moment.

I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but really. . . wake me up for a meteor storm or a solar eclipse.

[JackTheTripper]

I used to be really into astronomy, but I've always found a lunar eclipse to be one of the most boring astronomical events. Why? It looks like a crescent moon -- as if I haven't seen that many times before. I have to admit I did go outside to glance at it for a moment.

I don't mean to be a spoilsport, but really. . . wake me up for a meteor storm or a solar eclipse.

I have to agree with you there, but I did take a peeky.

Here's a pic a friend of mine posted on another forum.

http://www.biocow.com/ppc/eclipse_trail.jpg

[Don Tolson]

OK, I got a question... up to the time of the eclipse, we saw a pretty dark shadow crossing the moon, almost blocking out all light. Once the shadow fell across the entire face of the moon, the moon lightened up and showed the 'reddish' tinge we see here in the various photos. Then, the opposite happened as we moved out of the peak of the event.

What causes the increased 'lightening' of the moon when it is totally eclipsed? I would have thought it would kind of blank out (or just be a very faint outline) as it was completely engulfed in the earth's shadow.

[OSUKid7]

OK, I got a question... up to the time of the eclipse, we saw a pretty dark shadow crossing the moon, almost blocking out all light. Once the shadow fell across the entire face of the moon, the moon lightened up and showed the 'reddish' tinge we see here in the various photos. Then, the opposite happened as we moved out of the peak of the event.

What causes the increased 'lightening' of the moon when it is totally eclipsed? I would have thought it would kind of blank out (or just be a very faint outline) as it was completely engulfed in the earth's shadow.Good question...I don't know for sure, but maybe it has to do with the wavelengths of light (same reason the sky is blue?) - since red is the longer wavelengths and it the light from the sun must curve around Earth to reach the moon? Really don't know, but that's my instinctual thought. :lol:

I was up late doing homework, but did take a few minutes to check for it out my back window. It was almost directly above me (slightly east, but very high in the sky), but I was able to see the redish moon too. It was pretty neat, but nothing compared to the Leonids meteor shower I was able to see a few years ago (saw many meteors per minute for half an hour...was amazing).

[JackTheTripper]

OK, I got a question... up to the time of the eclipse, we saw a pretty dark shadow crossing the moon, almost blocking out all light. Once the shadow fell across the entire face of the moon, the moon lightened up and showed the 'reddish' tinge we see here in the various photos. Then, the opposite happened as we moved out of the peak of the event.

What causes the increased 'lightening' of the moon when it is totally eclipsed? I would have thought it would kind of blank out (or just be a very faint outline) as it was completely engulfed in the earth's shadow.Good question...I don't know for sure, but maybe it has to do with the wavelengths of light (same reason the sky is blue?) - since red is the longer wavelengths and it the light from the sun must curve around Earth to reach the moon? Really don't know, but that's my instinctual thought. :lol:

I was up late doing homework, but did take a few minutes to check for it out my back window. It was almost directly above me (slightly east, but very high in the sky), but I was able to see the redish moon too. It was pretty neat, but nothing compared to the Leonids meteor shower I was able to see a few years ago (saw many meteors per minute for half an hour...was amazing).

You're right on. I read somewhere that our atmosphere catches the light and bends it in kind of like a magnifying glass would. And depending how many clouds, dust, pollution, storms, etc.... are going on it said the moon may take on a pumpkin orange color, a deep red color or be blocked out almost completely if there was a lot going on but they never know until it happens. I'm assuming since it was a blood red color there was quite a bit going on but not enough to black it out almost completely.

[Don Tolson]

You're right on. I read somewhere that our atmosphere catches the light and bends it in kind of like a magnifying glass would. And depending how many clouds, dust, pollution, storms, etc.... are going on it said the moon may take on a pumpkin orange color, a deep red color or be blocked out almost completely if there was a lot going on but they never know until it happens. I'm assuming since it was a blood red color there was quite a bit going on but not enough to black it out almost completely.

Thanks, but it wasn't really the 'red' part I was asking about. I understand how light is bent when it goes through our atmosphere and can cause colouration of the moon's surface. What intrigued me was the fact that when the moon should have been in full shadow and basically completely black, it suddenly lightened up.

[JustinGTP]

It was really nice in Calgary. We live just outside of Calgary in an Estate, so no streetlamps. Brilliant.

[Prevost]

OK, I got a question... up to the time of the eclipse, we saw a pretty dark shadow crossing the moon, almost blocking out all light. Once the shadow fell across the entire face of the moon, the moon lightened up and showed the 'reddish' tinge we see here in the various photos. Then, the opposite happened as we moved out of the peak of the event.

What causes the increased 'lightening' of the moon when it is totally eclipsed? I would have thought it would kind of blank out (or just be a very faint outline) as it was completely engulfed in the earth's shadow.
I think that effect is more of an optical illusion.

As long as part of the moon is still not into the Earth's shadow, it is bright enough to cause to the human eye (and to cameras, even more) an "error" at handling the real color of the area within the shadow, since the difference in lightning levels between the two areas is too much to the eyes' ability of adjusting to different levels of light (hopefully I made myself clear in my street English... :roll: ) I mean, being half of the moon so bright, the other part of it turns black-out dark to the eyes although not being so - this disabling our ability to detect the real color and lightning level of the darker area.

Once the moon gets completely into the shadow, the eyes are capable of adjusting to a single lightning level and seeing then the real color of it.

Also, I guess the atmosphere creates a shadow outline that is "diffuse" allowing some light to pass into the shadow, giving some light to the moon when it is into the Earth's shadow.

Another known optical illusion of this kind is the sun and the moon looking larger as they are near the horizon and smaller when they get high in the sky. The apparent size of both is always the same, but looks different because the eyes have more comparison references when those are closer to the horizon.

In the end, in both cases, the fact that the eyes make automatic comparisons of size and lightning causes those optical illusions.

[ctmagnus]

Another known optical illusion of this kind is the sun and the moon looking larger as they are near the horizon and smaller when they get high in the sky. The apparent size of both is always the same, but looks different because the eyes have more comparison references when those are closer to the horizon.

In the end, in both cases, the fact that the eyes make automatic comparisons of size and lightning causes those optical illusions.

Another factor that comes into play in this scenario is that when the sun/moon is nearer to the horizon, its light has more of the Earth's atmosphere to pass through in order to reach you than if it was overhead, thus altering the original image (apparent size) somewhat. Or something to that effect.

[Prevost]

That's true.

[Steven Cedrone]

"During totality, when the Moon is completely immersed in shadow, it might turn red, the result of Earth's atmosphere bending hints of all the world's sunrises and sunsets simultaneously onto the Moon while the Sun's primary light is blocked. "

Steve

[JackTheTripper]

I think that effect is more of an optical illusion.

As long as part of the moon is still not into the Earth's shadow, it is bright enough to cause to the human eye (and to cameras, even more) an "error" at handling the real color of the area within the shadow, since the difference in lightning levels between the two areas is too much to the eyes' ability of adjusting to different levels of light.
Good point. Kind of like if you're standing in the hallway and the livingroom light is on but you're looking into the darkened bedroom you might not be able to make anything out. But if the house were compleatly dark your eyes would already be adjusted and you could probably see into the bedroom just fine with the small amount of light in the house. Happens to me in the mornings now that it stays dark later.

And it's even worse with cameras. Took a photography class and learned that the human eye can pick up contrast 1000 times better than a (film) camera.

[Prevost]

I think that effect is more of an optical illusion.

As long as part of the moon is still not into the Earth's shadow, it is bright enough to cause to the human eye (and to cameras, even more) an "error" at handling the real color of the area within the shadow, since the difference in lightning levels between the two areas is too much to the eyes' ability of adjusting to different levels of light.
Good point. Kind of like if you're standing in the hallway and the livingroom light is on but you're looking into the darkened bedroom you might not be able to make anything out. But if the house were compleatly dark your eyes would already be adjusted and you could probably see into the bedroom just fine with the small amount of light in the house. Happens to me in the mornings now that it stays dark later.

And it's even worse with cameras. Took a photography class and learned that the human eye can pick up contrast 1000 times better than a (film) camera.
Exactly!

My English is improving as far as I see... :mrgreen:

"During totality, when the Moon is completely immersed in shadow, it might turn red, the result of Earth's atmosphere bending hints of all the world's sunrises and sunsets simultaneously onto the Moon while the Sun's primary light is blocked. "

Steve
Yeah, this is what I thought.