For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, there will be a total lunar eclipse during the early Tuesday morning hours that should be quite visible from the United States and Canada (I do not know about other countries… Sorry.) You can find more information from NASA, including the exact eclipse times (according to your time zone).

Hi,

Thanks for the "Heads Up" (pun intended) I will check it out with the family tonight.

I was in the bush working last night and the moon was very bright by midnight, when I locked the access gate I did not even need a light to operate.

Mike

Actually, I am interested, this is the first total eclipse since 2004 in our area (Idaho, USA) The observatory I am affiliated with herrett.csi.edu is planning some early morning activities for this event. We will begin at 02:30 MDT Tuesday morning and conclude when
the eclipse is over. Hopefully if all goes well we will have several telescopes (up to 10) and will record this event in several formats (DVD, 8MM and VHS) Okay, so we're astronomy geeks.

Stargazer

Hi Stargazer,

Thanks for the NASA link, for me the eclipse will be in the very early morning, no way I will be able to get my 3 teenagers on the last week of summer vacation, out of bed to see that.

Dw and I may catch it though,

Mike

Sounds romantic; never underestimate the power of the moon, or anything else that works!

Mike

If you have a digital camera with good zoom feature, don't hesitate to take some shots with several different sets of exposures, and post the best shot here! This is quite a rare event. The moon is in perigee (it's ~8% larger than the other times), and it'll actually cross the center of the Earth's shadow (which is 4 times the size of the Moon). Tripod is advised during totality, it's going to be very dim.

And it will be red from what I read in the local paper. If I am awake in a couple of hours, I will wonder outside with my camera. Hawaii is supposed to have a great view of it. In fact, the Bishop Museum is having an eclipse party tonight, probably at their planetarium.

It's exactly 0300 here (Mountain Time) and I just looked outside (we're working a 4p-12p operation this week). The North-Northeastern segment of it is eclipsed right now. I'm going to give it about 15 minutes and see what happens.

By the way, earlier tonight the moon was full (and huge!) and very bright. I had a 70 mile drive home tonight and could have done it with lights off...relatively easily.

NOT that anyone wants to read a play-by-play tomorrow of what they missed early this morning, but.............

it's 0325 and the moon is just shy of halfway eclipsed. Maybe the color will change to a deeper red but, from what I can tell, the upper eclipsed part right now appears to be just a light, rusty brown.

More play-by-play to come...... ((( )))

I just stood in the front yard and watched the last 10 minutes of the eclipse. I'd call the color a dull orange, I guess.

It eclipsed fully at 0355 MT but the southern half had a slightly brighter glow than the northern, which eclipsed earlier. Interesting: about 3 minutes before the full eclipse, a falling star shot down toward the southern horizon, almost crossing the moon.

Isn't Mercury or Mars supposed to travel closer to the earth this month than in the last skillion years? I thought I read that somewhere. It's supposed to appear twice (or more) the size of the moon.

There you have it. If you missed watching or recording it, you get all the benefits just by reading the last three posts. And....you're welcome! ((( )))