I'm a little late getting the word out, but there will be a total lunar eclipse visible to all of North America on Tuesday morning, December 21, 2010! It will run from about 12:30 a.m. ET (that's just after Midnight, folks) Tuesday morning (or Monday night, as some people might refer to it) to about 6 a.m. ET.
The important thing about this eclipse is that it will be the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the Winter Solstice since 1683, and only the second one to occur in the Common Era! So if you have reasonably clear skies, Don't miss it!!
Here's an animated gif file from Wikipedia that demonstrates what will happen.
And in case that didn't work for you or it doesn't animate, then here's a video of it that I made using my Starry Night program. Be warned: in case the Moon isn't round in the video below, You know that it really is, right? My first try with this made the Moon look like an egg. But you get the idea, right? :-) [UPDATE edit: I think it's fixed now]
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There are two shadows cast by the Earth that the Moon will pass through: first the penumbra, and then the Umbra. Now, you may not notice much at the start of the eclipse when the Moon enters the penumbra. It's only a partial shadow and you'll only see the Moon dim a bit. But when the Moon enters the Umbra, then it will be fully within the darkest part of the Earth's shadow.
Note that the Moon will not go completely dark as my video implies! Instead, it will most probably turn a dark ruddy orange or red. This is for the same reason that you see red/orange sunrises and sunsets. The Earth's atmosphere bends some of the sun's light around the Earth and into the shadow.
Happy Viewing!!
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Comments: 43
Bummer that our forecast is for cloud cover and more snow during the time of the eclipse.
Rats!
Great Post! Thank-You!
P.S., in case you want to know what happened in the year 1683, the last time you had a solstice / eclipse conjunction, here's what wikipedia says:
January–June
April 10 – Charles V the Duke of Lorraine is appointed commander of the Imperial army.
May 3 – Sultan Mehmed IV enters Belgrade.
June 6 – The Ashmolean Museum opens as the world's first university museum.
June 12 – The Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II of England is discovered.
[edit]July–December
July 8 – The Qing Dynasty Chinese admiral Shi Lang leads 300 ships with 20,000 troops out of Tongshan, Fujian and sails towards the Kingdom of Tungning, in modern-day Taiwan and Penghu, in order to quell the kingdom in the name of Qing.
July 14 – A 140,000-man Ottoman force arrives at Vienna and starts to besiege the city.
July 16 and July 17 – Battle of Penghu: Qing Chinese admiral Shi Lang defeats the naval forces of Zheng Keshuang in a decisive victory.
September 5 – The Qing Chinese admiral Shi Lang receives the formal surrender of Zheng Keshuang, ushering in the collapse of the Kingdom of Tungning, which is then incorporated into the Qing Empire.
September 12 – Battle of Vienna: The Ottoman siege of the city is broken with the arrival of a force of 70,000 Polish, Austrians and Germans under Polish-Lithuanian king Jan III Sobieski, whose cavalry turns their flank (considered to be the turning point in the Ottoman Empire's fortunes).
October 3 – Shi Lang reaches Taiwan and occupies present day Kaohsiung.
October 6 – Germantown, Pennsylvania is founded (in 1983 U.S. President Ronald Reagan declares a 300th Year Celebration, and in 1987, it becomes an annual holiday, German-American Day).
November 1 – The British crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
December – The River Thames freezes, allowing a frost fair to be held.
anuary–June
January - Edmund Halley, Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke have a conversation in which Hooke later claimed not only to have derived the inverse-square law, but also all the laws of planetary motion.
January 5 - King Charles II of England gives the title Duke of St Albans to Charles Beauclerk, his illegitimate son by Nell Gwyn.
January 26 - Marcantonio Giustinian is elected Doge of Venice.
March - End of the severe frost in Britain, starting the previous December, during which the Thames was frozen in London, and the sea as far as 2 miles (3.2 km) out from land freezes over. There was great loss of beast and of wildlife, especially birds. Similar reports from across Northern Europe.[1]
Thanks for the Merry Christmas wishes picture! You're just too good. :-)
I'm stopping by to say thank you for yesterday's Birthday Greetings, I appreciate it, thank you.