Tonight's Lunar Eclipse Comes With a Rare Twist | Hacker News Reader

Tonight's Lunar Eclipse Comes With a Rare Twist

space.com

31 pointszafka22 comments

If you ever have the opportunity to witness a full solar eclipse, do it. Don't settle for a partial one, it's night and day (pun intended).

Just got my ass out of bed at 3am to go out of my apartment building to see it. I remember seeing a partial as a kid, but holy frabjous day is there a world of difference.

The moon was an incredibly dark red (from what I saw before). It's literally a blood red moon, like more red than I remember observing Mars as.

I was hoping to see it off my balcony (should be able to catch one of the 2014 lunar eclipses that way) but it's still incredibly high in the sky. However for setting an alarm and putting a winter coat on, it was totally worth it.

Quite simply, it's by far the coolest thing I've seen this year and I spent diddley squat on it.

In the SF Bay Area, a couple of places are hosting special events.

-Chabot Space & Science Center : 9pm - 2am. http://www.chabotspace.org/calendar.htm?date=12-20-2010&...

-Lawrence Hall of Science: 8pm - 2am. http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/LHS.html?ev...

Also, you might want to add "Tell HN" to the post.

Gotta; overcast :'(

I saw the eclipse a few years back through a telescope, though. That was fun, though we only had a few minutes before (again!) clouds came through.

Fortunately, lunar eclipses happen with some regularity: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/ has a schedule up IIRC, but you may have to wait until tomorrow to get it, it seems a bit hammered for some reason (ahem). This would be barely newsworthy if it didn't coincide with the solstice, an event only remarkable to us humans.

The solar eclipses are a bit more rare. Again, IIRC, the next one that I have a chance to see, assuming I am in the same place by then, was 2024. That'll be a pretty good one for the US, with the center going through northern California and passing through Texas.

The solstice is unremarkable, or the coincidence is? I would think the shortest day of the year is relatively noteworthy to other species, even if they can't detect the specific date; certainly more interesting than a lunar eclipse (I'd assume most animals are either asleep or can function just fine without a visible moon).

I agree the coincidence is pretty meaningless, especially since it's about 15 hours off from the exact moment of the solstice.

15 hours off? Meh. Fail.

Wake me when it's exact. /finds cryo-chamber

I feel your pain. Syracuse, NY here... Thanks to Lake Ontario, we're under almost perpetual cloud cover during the winter (with snow falling out of those clouds most of the time).

Seattle's looking dicey for viewing, unfortunately.

I'm on the other side of the state -- we managed to see it just up to full coverage before the clouds came in.

+ Ursids meteor shower

Unbelievably clear skies, 53F, bedroom community with little light pollution.... should be great.

Jupiter set earlier (with Neptune).

Pink Floyd, DSOTM on the playlist in tribute.

I was thinking of playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, but upon reflection I realized it wasn't appropriate.

Snow and certain clouds all night near Boston. This is the only winter solstice snow storm I've ever been disappointed by.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.245293663448...

The best layout of times and time zones is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse

Also, if you're using unix, look for the UTC flag (typically '-u') for the date(1) command.

Mostly clear here on the East coast of the US, so I'm setting up the telescope.

Clear here in Richmond :) going to hang out by the carillon, hopefully with some warm libations.

The meteor shower makes it even worse for us missing it due to cloudy skies. (SoCal here)

This article says it starts at 12:30 EST -- I think it's actually 1:30 EST, no?

Correct. See: http://shadowandsubstance.com/

I'm getting a 404 for that URL.

Great view here in Jensen Beach, FL.

Overcast in buffalo...

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