A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy) with Earth between the other two, and only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either node of its orbit.A totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called a blood moon for its reddish color, which is caused by Earth completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth's atmosphere. This light appears reddish for the same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light.
Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly 2 hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only up to a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon.
For the date of the next eclipse, see § Recent and forthcoming lunar eclipses.
If I decided to build a rocketship would you guys help me? How about if I made a totally safe wormhole connecting Holland, Colorado, London, and Guam? We could build it in my backyard. Sh*t we could go to the moon, and do the moonwalk, in a moonwalk, on the moon. We'd have to play football with...
PF member turbo-1 predicted that some superstitious Red Sox fans would attach some mystical significance to the lunar eclipse during the final game of the World Series. So far, fortunately, I have not seen too much of that in the news, although I have not asked many fans about it. I did find...
http://www.planetfusion.co.uk/~pignut/tlp.html
also see http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/farout/story/0,13028,1315487,00.html
When I saw this I thought about the Astronaut who while orbiting the moon saw a flashing light on the dark side. He reported the light and was told to watch on the...
Hello Everyone,
I put this message on the astronomy forum but didn't really get the answear I was looking for.
I am currently designing project where part of it will involve a website and amoungst things, on the site I would like present the time for sunrise and set for the current day and...
What does everyone think of this idea? I'm writing a paper on it, and I need some arguments as to why it wouldn't work or why its a bad idea. Here's a link to an explanation of LSP: http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-8/iss-2/p12.pdf
A limitless supply of energy for the world. Why aren't...
The average synodic rotational period of the Sun is approximately 27.27 days. (synodic means 'relative to an observer on earth')
The sidereal orbital period of the moon around the Earth is known accurately and is 27.321661 days. (sidereal means 'relative to an observer fixed in space' i.e...
Hi all,
I'm trying to locate a map with a lunar "sea-level" and colors (or similar) which change based on relative altitudes.
I'm striking out online in my quick 15 minute search. Does anyone know of where I should be looking?
Thanks,
http://www.lunarrepublic.com/news/media_love_021302.shtml
The Moon's surface, pulled by the Sun and Earth, may bulge out and dip in as much as 10 centimeters (almost four inches) over 27 days. Love numbers show how elastic the Moon is, giving clues to the material under the surface. The newly...
Lunar Programme Admits Chinese to “The Elite Cover-Up Club”
http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/08/content_288360.htm
This sort of puts Bush’s and Jintao’s recent “whirlwind” tour of Canberra into perspective. Here’s some comments by Tom Schieffer (CIA Ambassador to Australia)...
Hi,
I was fortunate to be camping on November 8 and near a nice warm fire throughout the entire lunar eclipse. It was awesome!
I have a question about the the apparent direction the moon appeared to travel through the Earth's shadow. This is kinda hard to put into words, so please bear...
I stumbled on this page while reading the weekly celestial weather report.
http://astrosite.com/__JM1.htm
the star of david is present at the exact moment in an astrological chart that the Earth experiences a total lunar eclipse on 11/8/2003...
Lunar eclipse tonight (15/16.5) and I found this night calculator
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html
that allows you to get information on the eclipse, and future eclipses.