Lunar eclipse tomorrow night!

[Pale Blue Dot]

It's going to be cloudy here, unfortunately :grr:.

http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/02/19/lunar-eclipse-wednesday-night/

By now you’ve probably heard about the lunar eclipse tomorrow night. Lunar eclipses are great; they last a long time, so there’s no hurry, you don’t need crystal clear skies (the clearer the better, of course), and you don’t need a telescope! Just your eyes will do, though having binoculars is better. I actually prefer them over using a telescope.

The event will be visible pretty much everywhere in the US, Canada, South America, and western Africa and Europe. Orbiting Frog has a ton of info, including a nice animation of what to expect. Sky and Telescope has info as well (including a diagram with times listed for the west coast of the US, if that helps). But here’s the rundown:

The show starts for real around 01:43 Universal Time (CAREFUL HERE! That’s 1:43 a.m. on Thursday morning in England, but that’s Wednesday night for the United States. Check to see what your local offset is from Universal Time; for example, in Boulder we are UT - 7, so the eclipse starts here at 1:43 a.m. UT - 7 hours = 6:43 p.m. local time Wednesday night. But don’t trust me– do this math for yourself!).

You may read that the eclipse starts an hour or so before that, but if you look you probably won’t see anything. Earth casts a dark shadow surrounded by a much lighter one, called the umbra and penumbra, respectively. When the Moon enters the penumbra you’ll hardly notice, but when it enters the umbra at 01:43 it’ll look like a bite is taken out of it.

[DarkTirade]

1. 7:43 eastern time.

Weehoo. Gotta keep an eye out for that. :)

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Very cool! Thanks for the heads up. Ran across this viewers' guide

When I was looking for what time it's going to be visable here (Northern NY). They're saying that the clouds here will make it more difficult to see, but the impressive thing is that half the world will have a chance to view it... :D

I saw a solar eclipse when I was a kid, and will never forget it, since it was big news at the time. We looked though these little things that we made with cardboard and a pinhole in it, since you can't look directly into the sun. I still find eclipses fascinating...:hi:

Viewer's guide: Total lunar eclipse on Wed.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-02-19-lunar-eclipse_N.htm