Lunar Eclipse

Yours was good, Piffka -- the large chunk bitten out and the fuzzier line. We had some clouds, so every now and then the moon would fade out entirely and we'd say "Oooh, it's gone!", then the bright little fingernail left would fade in again.

It took much much longer than I expected, for some reason. I thought that especially once it got close to total, you'd see the gap closing the way the last bit of sun slips quickly over the horizon.

It was DARK out there for a while. Can just imagine people 5,000 years ago (or whatever) being WAY freaked.

Oh and yay jjorge!

Jjorge -- I missed your post. I am so happy for you. What a romantic (if chilly) moment for you both. Wow. Thank you Moon, indeed!

And so, during totality, Jjorge... Sozobe... was it completely dark? Could you see the moon at all? Maybe Mr. Piffka was right - the reason I couldn't see anything was it was hidden.

I was truly hoping to see a dull reddish disk, glowing but dark.

Ya know, I missed totality. I kept looking, saw a skinny sliver, a skinnier sliver, waited, waited, got distracted, then it was back to a bite out of it. I checked back in a general way often, though, and I didn't ever see anything any color but white.

Whatever it was in Gig Harbor, it was cloudy in north Seattle (sniff).

That's too bad, Sozobe. Maybe when it's a total eclipse you really CAN'T see it. Still even the partial eclipse was interesting. We used my good Audubon binoculars and the moon was spectacularly lit. That's when we could really see the reddish cast.

Patiodog -- I was amazed myself at the weather, very pleased. It was basically clear with drifts of clouds. If you're in North Seattle, you're about 50 miles from me. Guess it can make a difference. Some people say that we have a rain shadow because of the end of the Olympics. I dunno -- it had rained earlier in the day, but I just wasn't mentally or physically ready for that long drive to Ellensburg. Of course, now I wish I'd gone, since it's like Montana there -- big sky country.

Thanks Soz, thanks Piffie.

Even when the moon was at total eclipse we could see it dimly. We were speculating as to why it wasn't totally invisible and whether or not it was the starlight that gave the moon a little light to reflect.

We had also heard that it would look reddish but it didn't look like that to us.

everything to the east was dusty and cloudy - nothing site so I had to settle for the eclipse shot.

Uhmmm, Satt explained it to me -- he needed to use pictures but it wasn't starlight... well, the sun is a star... so it was starlight, but only of the most domestic kind. The sunlight was going sideways through our atmosphere and hitting the moon from reflections off the earth. (Please Satt, if you read this, I know that's not quite right, but the best I could do.) I think if you'd had a pair of binoculars you'd have seen more of the reddish color; that's what we noticed.

(And Jjorge, I'm just so happy for you. I hope this new relationship continues to blossom. I hope your friend realizes how lucky she is. You're special, a real keeper! :wink: )

The eclipsed moon is read for the same reason that the sky is blue.

Yep, that's one of the pictures. Nice.

I could not see the eclipse.

Here are photos on a website.
images of lunar eclipse



A refraction makes a part of lights reach the surface of the moon. And scattering reduces the blue part of the llight.

Don't miss this! Eclipse

Husker!!!

Satt -- Those pictures are great, some of those folks took excellent shots of the moon. I was very sorry our newspaper didn't carry in photos of the eclipse and I hadn't thought to look online. I'm sorry you couldn't see the eclipse at all. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself when I missed the totality, but at least I could see the partial eclipse. It was, I admit, a relief when the moon was finally shining brightly again. "All's right with the world."

Thanks for the pics, Satt! That's exactly what it looked like to me, except that it appeared more white to my naked eye.

There's a lunar eclipse today as well.

In the moment (well, a couple of minutes ago) the moon still looks 'normal' here:





I bet, we'll get rain or at least clouds soon

Still clear sky - 22 minutes later (21:41 GMT) than the previous

Here too :

Your moon looks Frenchy :wink:

21:57 GMT - clouds are coming