Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Lunar Eclipse - Live Blogging

8:35 - There's a full lunar eclipse visible from Cambridge tonight and the clouds have cooperated and skeedaddled. Get ready for a riveting live blog, VTKids!



8:50 - wild stuff here. It's definitely getting darker in the lower right quadrant.

8:51 - lower left. lower left quadrant is definitely getting darker.

8:58 - it's not going to be a total eclipse until 10:00 pm, so we've got some time here. If you're in a region in which you're able to check this out, do so, because it will be the last lunar eclipse visible from earth until December 29, 2010, according to the Boston Globe. For your edification: a lunar eclipse is when the Earth blocks the path from the sun to the moon, casting a shadow over la luna. Boston.com also points to a possibility of some cool color action going on:

As it slips into the darkness, the moon will change colors that can range from a dull gray to a brilliant copper-red with a bright blue rim. While the earth blocks direct rays from the sun, the atmosphere refracts some of the light into the shadow.

9:09 - We're probably about at quarter coverage right now.



9:16 - a little darker now.

9:21 - no crazy copper-red or blue colors yet.

9:30 - bout halfway now



9:43 - bout 3/4 now. no bright colors yet, but Saturn and the star Regulus (part of Leo) are visible:



9:50 - almost there ...

9:52 - almoster there ...

9:56 - starting to see some of that color!!



10:00 - holy shit this is awesome!

4 comments:

Jeannetto said...

oh, im jealous! (see my bitter comic about how i missed it)

Dewy24 said...

Riveting indeed. You've giving me the idea of live blogging my next hard boiled egg:

6:45- put egg in boiling water.
6:46- egg is still in boiling water.
6:47- egg is getting harder.
6:48- i hope i don't overcook the yoke again.
6:49- thinking about taking egg out.
6:50- is 5 minutes too much or too little? i can never remember. i guess it depends on the size of the egg.


Your pictures of the eclipse are good.

Dan Nolan said...

Sorry you missed it, jeannette. As dewy24 has attested, it was in fact riveting. I don't know what it looked like from Allston, but it was like a Chinese New Years over here with all the bright colors in the sky. I think the moon spun and I heard some crackles and pops at one point. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Paul said...

Bravo!