Total eclipse of the moon
 

Tonight, Thursday May 15 (in the Eastern time zone of the US), there will be a total eclipse of the moon. Unlike a solar eclipse, the only factor in whether you can see it or not is simply whether the moon will be visible at your location during the time the eclipse is happening. (Of course, the weather forecast for the Philadelphia area calls for clouds and rain.) The complete eclipse will be visible in South America, Central America, and Eastern North America. Most of the rest of North America, Europe, and much of Africa will see some part of the eclipse. For a complete discussion of times and locations, see

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...2003May15.html

Unlike a solar eclipse, there is no potential damage to your vision from looking at a lunar eclipse. It is quite enjoyable to view with the naked eye, but if you don't have a telescope lying around, even a small pair of binoculars will enhance your view significantly.

For the clouded crowd
 

This should be starting about 7:45 PM PDST/11:45 PM EDST. I used Celestia to get this great screenshot.

... And it should nearly cover the moon at it's greatest.

Question:
Since the eclipse is just the moon moving through the earths shadow, it still exerts its force on the tides, etc.
But what about werewolves? Same thing?

That's a topic of some controversy. The last astronomer who tried to work on it got eaten.

Thanks for that pic Uryoces--I'm not familiar with that software, I'm going to have to download it & check it out.

(We're clouded out here--even with a full moon prior to the start of the eclipse, I couldn't see the light coming through the clouds.)

Dagnabit, I stayed up late just to watch it, but it rained about 6:00PM and the clouds stayed just to spite me.

Hope it was pretty for some of y'all.

:)

same here. its been clear blue skies for two weeks, and the sky is clear this morning. but last night around 6pm the clouds rolled in and stayed until about 3am, when i awoke to a full moon staring me in the face. is it wrong to flip the moon the bird?

~james

Well, I bought a camera attachment for my telescope just for the eclipse! I would've bought it anyway at some point, but I paid for fedex overnight so I'd have it in time. I probably singlehandedly doomed the entire world to cloud cover.

I justified the purchase by adding on a solar filter, which didn't increase the shipping costs any.

Out here in So Cali, it was beautiful. My husband and I came out of the movie theatre at around 9ish, so we were right in the middle of it.. it looked like someone had just smudged te moon out. The light you could see was very orangish.... ... but that might just be an effect of the smog. :rolleyes:

no, that's normal color for a lunar eclipse.

It is??
I've never seen that.

Well I haven't seen nearly enough to qualify as an expert :) but the color is usually some shade of red or orange. I remember seeing one when I was 9 or so that was a really dark red.

Having said that, it looks like this particular one (I didn't actually see it, remember) was more grayish, which is darker than normal.

http://skyandtelescope.com/observing...icle_957_1.asp

Minneapolis belated reports a gorgeous, huge, orange moon.

Normally it's supposed to be red, but the last total lunar eclipse I saw, the moon was definitely green. Glow-in-the-dark green.

You fergot to put the moon cheese filter on your lens.

I think you should be checking with your dealer to see what he laced that weed with, man ... :blunt: ;)