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In case you couldn’t stay up all night and watch it, or you are someplace where it wasn’t visible, here is the video of last night’s lunar eclipse. Four hours of moonlight are compressed into two minutes. The video was captured over Gainesville, Florida by professor William Castleman. -via The Daily What
The only total lunar eclipse of 2010 will be visible from all of North America on Monday night/Tuesday morning. That won’t happen again until 2014.
The entire 72 minutes of the total lunar eclipse will be visible from all of North and South America, the northern and western part of Europe, and a small part of northeast Asia including Korea and much of Japan. Totality will also be visible in its entirety from the North Island of New Zealand and Hawaii.
In all, an estimated 1.5 billion people will have an opportunity to enjoy the best part of this lunar show.
In other parts of the world, either only the partial stages of the eclipse will be visible or the eclipse will occur when it’s daytime and the moon is not above their local horizon.
The moon might take on some odd colors during the eclipse. This is the first lunar eclipse during the winter solstice in almost 500 years. Link -via reddit
If you love the Twilight series you might be interested in learning that Stephenie Meyer has written a little eclipse novella. The best part is that The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner can be read in full for free online. The catch is that the site will only be available until July 5th and you can’t download or print the material.
On December 31st, we will see the second full moon of the month, or the 13th full moon of the year. These rare occasions are called a blue moon, as in “once in a blue moon”. But that’s not the only thing special about New Year’s Eve this year. There will also be a partial lunar eclipse on the 31st (visible in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia)!
Only a very small portion of the Moon’s southern limb will be in the Earth’s umbral shadow, but there will be a noticeable darkening visible over the Moon’s face at the point of greatest eclipse. Need more? Then know this eclipse is the one of four lunar eclipses in a short-lived series. The lunar year series repeats after 12 lunations or 354 days. Afterwards it will begin shifting back about 10 days in sequential years. Because of the date change, the Earth’s shadow will be about 11 degrees west in sequential events.
For the eclipse, the duration of the partial phase will last within two seconds of a hour long, while the penumbral duration from beginning to end will run about four hours and eleven minutes. Penumbral contact will begin at 17:17:08 UT and umbral contact at 18:52:43 UT. The moment of greatest depth of shadow will occur at 19:22:39 UT, 31 December 2009.
Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
(image credit: Kostian Iftica)
The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century will move across part of the earth tomorrow. You’ll be able to see it if you are certain parts of India, China, or Japan.
The first who will be able to see it are the inhabitants of the Gulf of Khambhat, India. Instead of the sunrise, people will see a black hole rising in the sky and birds will be unsure if the day is beginning or not.
The eclipse will last exactly 6 minutes and 39 minutes, being the longest of the 21st century and will only be surpassed on June 13, 2132. After those from the Gulf of Khambhat, also Chinese and Japanese will be able to see the solar eclipse.
Link -via Metafilter
Follow the eclipse live on this Japanese site.
(image credit: JAXA/NHK)
