Lunar eclipse tonight (APOD 20 Feb 2008)

Arramon · Post by **Arramon** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:52 pm

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080220.html

Can't wait for this night's eclipse... especially if we get a nice glimpse of that rocket heading towards space. Hope people have their shutters ready. =)

And about this image for today. Anyone have images that show some weird light caught on film after someone left their shutter open for many hours during the night? It would be interesting to see some zigzag motions caught on film using a long exposure, or other odd looking phenomenamena.... =b

The moon looks cool all stretched out. Is this could be done for tonight's and possibly catching the path of the missile on film (and maybe explosion?!), that would be so sweet.

Videos too would be nice.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:16 pm

Arramon wrote:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080220.html
Can't wait for this night's eclipse... especially if we get a nice glimpse of that rocket heading towards space. Hope people have their shutters ready. =)

<<Although the military operation could be launched late Wednesday, rough seas in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii made it likely the attempt to destroy the satellite, carrying 1,000 pounds of toxic rocket fuel, would be DELAYED.>>

Shoot down would be WEST of Hawaii in any event while only a very partial eclipse might be visible in the EAST during moon rise.

---------------------------------------
Moon Slide Slim?
Are the APOD folks running out of good titles?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080220.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030515.html
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Infrared shot of lunar eclipse shows that the hottest spots are:
1) Inside deep lunar craters
2) On dark lunar mare

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:32 pm

Going to miss it here. Supposed to have freezing rain and sleet tonight. Not good viewing conditions for a lunar eclipse or shooting down satellites.

henk21cm · Post by **henk21cm** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:00 pm

Moon Slide Slim?
Are the APOD folks running out of good titles?

Repetition is the art of teaching. For those covered by cloudy skies, it is nice to have an image; the forcast for tomorrow here is cloudy, the moon will be obscured by low stratus. In more than 40 years the wheather favoured maybe 5 eclipses.

However, more interesting to me is the image you included: the IR shot of the moon during an eclips. Striking phenomenon is the large amount of hot craters in Mare Transquilitatis, whereas the amount of 'visible' craters in this mare is relatively low compared to the amount of craters on the south eastern lunasphere. Why so many in Transquilitatis and zero in Mare Crisium? The angle of the lunar surfase is not the key, since a symmetry with the western lunasphere is non existing.

The hottest craters seem to correlate with those craters known for their radiant apearence at full moon: Tycho, Copernicus, Plinius, Kepler, Aristarchus etc. The heatsink of these craters to the lunar body must be low, to heat up more than their surroundings. Furthermore they have to radiate the heat towards the earth rather well, to be visible.

This completely new to me. Art, thanks for teaching me today a new aspect of the moon.

Arramon · Post by **Arramon** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:59 pm

Regulus and Saturn are to be present tonight as well... hmmmm
Better not be cloudy! =b

astrolabe · Post by **astrolabe** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:01 am

Eclipse here in So. Maine looks spectacular in a clear sky, which is, in itself, an amazing phenom. Inadequate photo equipment means watching it the way people did before the 20th century though I can't say I mind too much.

craterchains · Post by **craterchains** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:49 am

Watched the moon rise over the hill behind the marina, and then it started to get darker on it's western limb till it was all most out of sight. great view with just binoculars here in Tacoma wa. West coast usa.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:23 am

Snowstorm in the Washington D.C. area cleared up nicely to view the eclipse.

I do appreciate the warm red glow of a lunar eclipse much more on a crisp winter night than I would on a muggy summer evening.

Andy Wade · Post by **Andy Wade** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:52 am

Nothing here in Yorkshire, England. It was well overcast last night and raining this morning.

It's a great shame as we've just had a string of cold clear nights. It will have to be 2015 then!

henk21cm · Post by **henk21cm** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:37 am

At 5h45 in western Netherlands two minutes of somewhat less thick clouds. The moon made the clouds glow a little, no details could be seen. The glow was asymmetric, as in the last quarter lunation phase.

The next thicker layers of stratus were waiting to obscure the moon and the glow did not reappear.

DavidLeodis · Post by **DavidLeodis** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:50 pm

Andy Wade wrote:Nothing here in Yorkshire, England. It was well overcast last night and raining this morning.
It's a great shame as we've just had a string of cold clear nights. It will have to be 2015 then!

Yes it was just typical that it was cloudy for the eclipse night here in West Yorkshire! It also always seems to be cloudy on the nights when any annual meteor shower is due.

At least there was a gorgeous display of hoar frost yesterday morning on the trees in the local wood close to where I live.

npsguy · Post by **npsguy** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:06 pm

The weather here was supposed to cloudy with some snow. Instead it was perfectly clear. I could not believe it... it was great.

Pegasus · Post by **Pegasus** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:30 pm

I have a question about last night's eclipse. For a change we had spectacular weather here in Toronto. It was an extremely cold (I believe "f***ing freezing" is the technical term) but crystal clear night. I had expected the Moon to turn a deep red or orange, but instead it only looked like a very muddy-greyish pale-yellow-ish.

Has the colour aspect been over-hyped? I swear I've seen it dark red or at least a much more saturated colour in the past, if only in pictures (which of course isn't always how it looks in person). Or was there some other reason why the colour seemed so washed out? Maybe the city lights? I kept telling people it would get deep red and felt like an idiot when it never happened!

Thanks for any insights about this.

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 4:40 pm

Did you see the moon during totality? Toronto was well within the path of totality. A total eclipse looks red because the only light reaching the moon is filtered thru the earths atmosphere, similar to the color of the sun at sunrise or sunset. If you were viewing it before (or after) totality, direct light from the sun washes out the effect.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040506.html

Wish I could have seen it. No more until Dec 2010. Any pictures?

Pegasus · Post by **Pegasus** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:01 pm

Hi Bystander,

Yes, I watched from around 9:15 until around 11:00 (maybe ever so slightly sooner), when I finally had to go inside and thaw out. Judging by the symmetry of the slightly brighter bottom edge, I probably went in when it was near or just after its closest to the midpoint of its journey through the umbra. It was pretty amazing from what I did see, but it was far from what I expected.

Pegasus

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:54 pm

Pegasus wrote:... I watched from around 9:15 until around 11:00 ...

You should have seen all of totality. According to wikipedia, totality was between 10 and 11 EST.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2 ... pse#Timing

Arramon · Post by **Arramon** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:24 pm

That wikipedia page has a small gallery of images posted for this eclipse. =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2 ... se#Gallery

Starship Asterisk*

Lunar eclipse tonight (APOD 20 Feb 2008)

Lunar eclipse tonight (APOD 20 Feb 2008)

Re: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080220.html

Re: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080220.html

No eclipse visible

Re: No eclipse visible

Re: No eclipse visible

It was great