Blood Moon Tonight

[toobfreak]

If you have never seen a total lunar eclipse (blood moon) or want to see another, you can see one tonight. Fortunately, much of the country should be having clear, dry, fairly warm weather tonight.

The penumbral eclipse is not detectable to the eye so I discount it. The actual umbral eclipse (where the sun is fully shielded from hitting the Moon) begins at about 2:20AM EDT and ends about 3:30AM EDT. For points farther west, subtract 1-3 hours.

Of course, if you look at the moon earlier or later (say from 1:30 to about 4:30, you will still see that something is wrong with the moon, as part of the moon will be within the shadow of the Earth and look dark. During peak totality (about 3AM Friday morning EDT) the Moon will be at its darkest and reddest.

Here is a picture of a total lunar eclipse I took in 2003 using a Questar 700:

MSN

 

[toobfreak]

Did anyone see the Blood Moon? I did, about 2:30AM EDT. I was up, I actually just looked out the window, it was high overhead, quite eerie. Totality had just begun and the Moon was quite dark and very red.

 

[ReinyDays]

Rained so hard last night there's a creek flowing out from under my house ... astronomy isn't nothing where it rains every day all day long ...