OT: Moon eclipse

[narf poit chez BOOM]

At least from here, (near Vancouver, BC), if anyones interested.

[Kamog]

This is the first time in my life that I have seen a lunar eclipse. The other times it happened, it was always cloudy. Fortunately, today it's a perfectly clear sky. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Right now, the moon is just starting to come out of eclipse. It's very interesting how you can see the curve of earth's shadow on the moon. Even when the moon is totally in shadow, it's still clearly visible, just darker and grey. It's not red like I expected it to be.

[Instar]

Yay! Teh moon is made of cheese narf, go get it!

[Atrocities]

From here it looked as if the moon were on fire. Most awe inspiring.

[Instar]

Its the refracted light from the edges of the atmosphere. It was very bright red too, skies must be clear and free of dust as well...

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Instar said:
Yay! Teh moon is made of cheese narf, go get it!


I wasn't making this post as Narf. I was posting it as me.

It was faintly red here.

[Kamog]

It's over now... that was great! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif There's a nice full moon in the sky now. My neck feels sore from looking up for so long. I wonder what people thought in ancient times looking at eclipses when they didn't know what was happening.

[Will]

It actually looked normal to me... but then again, it (sort of) rained yesterday in SoCal, and there wasn't as much smog in the air. So the moon was red because of the eclipse, and not the pollution :O

[David E. Gervais]

Did I miss something? A red Moon? I guess noone has any pics eh? Pics would be great.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Yes, I do live under a rock, right now it's an asteroid from se5. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[rdouglass]

Didn't see a red moon but it was a very clear and very cool eclipse in New England (southern Maine anyways).

Setup my telescope too which really wasn't necessary - a set of binoculars were fine. Someday I'll get a camera adapter for it and take a few shots.

[Gandalph]

Here (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=1&u=/041028/480/waet10410280351) is a pic of it with the Space Needle in the foreground.

[Dubrok]

I saw only Clouds...damn, i wish we lived on a Rock.Planet with NO Atmosphere ;-)
but i saw a lot of moon-eclipses before and in 1999 i went to Hungary with a couple of friends and my telescope to get a perfect view of the total solar eclipse - it was fanastic!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I wonder why an eclipse would make the moon look red?

[rdouglass]

Not my words but accurate AFAIK...

"The atmosphere plays a role here. Longer wavelengths pass through the atmosphere more readily, while shorter wavelenghts are scattered (related to the "why is the sky blue" question). When the moon or sun is low in the sky and shining through more atmosphere, this effect is at its maximum. Note that though the reddish appearance of the moon during the eclipse is related to this, an eclipsed moon can appear red when high in the sky."

So IOW it all has to do with the angle and the refractive qualities of the medium.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I'd forgotten which wavelengths are scattered. Thanks.

[Fyron]

http://www.why-is-the-sky-blue.org/why-is-the-sky-blue.html
http://www.sky-watch.com/articles/skyblue.html

This also explains why the sun is red/orange, but the sky is blue. Those wavelengths that are not scattered randomly by oxygen and nitrogen travel more or less straight from the sun to your eyes, rather than at random angles like the bluish light.

[Renegade 13]

It was cloudy here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif