Well, I was gonna write something all pretty for the lunar eclipse coming up on Tuesday, but then Pamela went and explained it all. You can also go here for the technical particulars. Sorry my countrymen: this one favors those upside-down Ozzians.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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August 26th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Let’s not forget that although Hawaii is 2500 miles from the West Coast, we are still your countrymen Phil. So we do get a chance to check out the eclipse, which should be around midnight or so. I’ll try to take good digital pictures so other countrymen (and women for that matter) will appreciate it.
August 26th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
There will be several groups down here in Australia running web casts of the event so that the poor Europeans and Mainland US folks can see it.
The CSU Remote Telescope will be broadcasting live images from 17:50 AEST and continue until approximately 23:25 AEST: http://black-hole-net.mit.csu.edu.au/telescope/
For once the weather forecast is fine too!
August 26th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I’ll certainly be checking out the total lunar eclipse in my home town (Brisbane, Australia)… but I’m really hanging out for the total solar eclipse that will be visible in Brisbane on 2037-07-13
*starts twiddling thumbs*
August 26th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
The Discovery Channel will also be showing the eclipse:
http://www.discoverychannel.com.au/eclipse/
They will source their images from three Australian observers:
Shevill Mathers – Southern Cross Observatory in Tasmania -
(Using a generously donated Firewire Camera from “The Imaging Source” in Germany)
Robert Holmes – Talbot Observatory in Victoria -
Andre Claydon – Springbrook Observatory in Qld
August 26th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Oh, right, Hawaii! Well, duh. And my neglecting to mention that has no relation at all to the fact that I was in California for 6 years and never got there, nor was I ever invited to give a talk at any of the many observatories there. Nope, not at all…
August 26th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
“Oh, right, Hawaii! Well, duh. And my neglecting to mention that has no relation at all to the fact that I was in California for 6 years and never got there, nor was I ever invited to give a talk at any of the many observatories there. Nope, not at all…”
Bitter much Phil?
August 26th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Well, although I won’t be able to sleep tomorrow night, Arizona is actually pretty well placed for this one. Its just REALLY godawful late at night.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Sad thing is, I’ve gotten thousands of hits in the past two weeks from people looking for “two moons on august 27″ (or 26, or 28), but none for the August 28 lunar eclipse which is mentioned in the same post. Sigh. If only signals traveled as efficiently as noise.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Midnight eclipse in Hawaii, about 60 degrees up makes the islands one of the prime locations for seeing this wonder of nature. Add to the mix seeing it from the slopes of Mauna Kea on Big Island with the Milky Way in the West – Scorpio on its side – and voila – an event is born!
In response to the question “where are you from”, tourist sometimes tell me “the United States”. LOL.
August 26th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Great animated eclipse sequence found at http://shadowandsubstance.com/
August 26th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Well Phil, it might be better out west, and on the other side of the world, but from my area I’ve got a great chance to see the fully eclipsed moon setting right next to some local lighthouses to the west. I’ll be standing on the beach with camera on tripod photographing this, if not for science, then for artistic reasons.
August 26th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Quick Question: (and maybe I should know this. sorry):
Is there anything especially scientifically interesting or useful about a lunar eclipse, beyond it just being cool?
A solar eclipse is a very good opportunity to research the corona of the sun and to look for possible near-sun objects that would normally be completely overwhelmed by the sun’s brightness. It has also been an opportunity to confirm the “gravity lens” effects of relativity.
Does a lunar eclipse offer any sort of similar scientific opportunities?
August 26th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Just happy to be an upside-down “Ozzian”.
(Nice word… I’m gonna start using it now. 
)
August 27th, 2007 at 12:44 am
Since the moon will set eclipsed it could possible create a good photo op to image the eclipsed moon on the horizon with a person in the foreground. In addition the full moon illusion might be in full swing. So it may not be the best for North America, there are still some nuances that could prove interesting for the early bird.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:51 am
*Ahem*! Ozzians indeed; New Zealand is prime real estate this time around!
August 27th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I was just in Oz a few weeks ago, and I showed your website to some friends near Tamworth. They really liked it. If by some chance they’re reading this, check out that eclipse, Peter and Stacy!
What a great reminder that:
“There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone
Though the oceans are wide and the mountains devide-
It’s a small world after all!”
August 27th, 2007 at 8:02 am
[...] I’m not going to bore you with the details of a lunar eclipse. If you want to read more about it check out this or this (both via Bad Astronomy). [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Ha!
We’ll have a good view of the whole thing here in Seattle, and a promise of clear skies too. (Only because it’s monday and ALL weekends this summer have been lousy). But 3:00 am is just not a friendly time for us who have work the next day, so I’ll probably pass this one up.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Wooo! All of California gets to see it! Actually, Phil, you can see it, if you stay up to about 4 A.M. When the Moon sets for you it will have finished coming out of the umbra.
It any of you don’t see it, don’t worry. The next one is on February 21st, and it will be a nice early evening one for North Americans.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:47 am
[...] In all the posts about tonight’s lunar eclipse, it’s easy to get the impression that you need to go out tomorrow night to see it. [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
[...] In all the posts about tonight’s lunar eclipse, it’s easy to get the impression that you need to go out tomorrow night to see it. [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
[...] I mean, I should be able to walk outside and look out at a blood-red moon… at 3:00 in the morning. (link BA Blog) [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
[...] The best view will be from Australia and New Zealand, but North Americans should be able to catch it as well, especially in the West. This entry is filed under Astronomy. You can follow any [...]
August 27th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
in case your spam filter nicked my email,
the weather channel’s website has a nice image of the lunar eclipse up, just with one problem (hint: look at the far side of the moon)
http://www.weather.com/maps/news/forecastsummary/lunareclipsesetup_large.html?from=wxcenter_maps
August 27th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Drbuzz0,
I don’t know if it is a strictly scientific use but this event can be used to get more people, especially kids, interested in science which can only be good for science.
I am setting up a 3″ reflector at my daughters Girl Guide meeting tonight. The timing was just perfect – the eclipse is on the same day as their meeting, the moon enters the umbra 20 minutes after their meeting starts, and the middle of the eclipse is right at the end of the meeting. The only possible problem is cloud but the skies have been fairly clear the last two days.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
[...] I was reminded by two sources, Bad Astronomy (which also points to a more detailed post on Star Stryder) and Caroline on [...]
August 28th, 2007 at 2:19 am
I’d also like to point out that Alaska is one of the 50 states. We should have a pretty good view tonight which is great, because we usually seem to get screwed on these kinds of things.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:37 am
wow its almost covered the whole moon on the gold coast in queensland its so exciting.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:58 am
7:55pm AEST (Sydney)… beautiful. Took about an hour to go from bright white to reddish brown. Looks awesome.
August 28th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Great, clear skies above Palmerston North, New Zealand. Beautiful.
August 28th, 2007 at 4:37 am
10:37 here; bang on totality.
August 28th, 2007 at 5:04 am
For all you sleepyheads, here’s what it looked like from Northeastern Pennsylvania:
http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2007/08/photos-of-lunar-eclipse-82807.html
August 28th, 2007 at 6:13 am
I just saw the most amazing sky night of my life. I live in Maui, Hawaii, on the rainforest side in Haiku. What a perfect night for the eclipse. Totally clear skys from around midnight until now. The orange color – amazing, the stars everywhere – we are out in the country, no city lights to mess with the view. Just at the very end 2:12 AM, now, there are clouds and the whiteness of the moon is shinning through.
What a blessing. Just wanted to share.
August 28th, 2007 at 6:44 am
We had a really great night in Campbelltown, near Sydney, Aust. The Girl Guides loved seeing it, asked lots of questions (some easy to answer, some less so…), and not one “boring!” from any of them. There’s hope for kids yet.
August 28th, 2007 at 8:03 am
It was an okay night here in Melbourne, Australia to see it, cloudy half the time but it was visible for at least half an hour, so not bad at all.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Not bad from Sydney either. The last couple astronomical thingys I’ve tried to catch have been weatherly challenged. Tonight however there was a perfect 380000 odd kays or so of visibility. Looked good from the big coat hanger overlooking the opera house. Sux to be in Sydney sometimes.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I had a clear view in southern California, though I’m paying for getting up at a ridiculous hour of the morning. Need…more…coffee…
August 28th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Woke up at just before five here in NY and went out to the porch with a friend. You know you’re up early when you see Orion in August. The top of the moon looked just “bitten off”, and as we waited, it all became covered in shadow. When the moon set, only a tiny, hair width of yellow moon at the bottom was unshadowed. I didn’t have a good camera, only my second-best pair of binoculars (My good ol’ 12×24s have been missing for a while, but these are still okay for maria viewing). Even though the moon was the umbra, we could see it’s outline through the binoculars. Very, very cool stuff.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I did a LiveWebCast from Hungry Valley, CA (in the middle of the desert) using my mobile satellite-DSL equipped 4×4 van:
http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com
I never intended to do the webcast thing, it came upon me as I was sitting through the partial umbral phase: Why not deploy the satellite dish (5 min operation) & start blogging? I was also surprised at the dramatic effect of the “stars coming out” during totality. One needs to experience a lunar eclipse in the outback (away from city lights).
I got some interesting wide-angle shots with the eclipsed moon against stars & Milky Way, those images will be posted soon. Also shot some video.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
*sigh* The light on my wrist-watch decided to fail during the eclipse
However, I realised that the moon didn’t look red at all while watching totality with my binoculars (it looked like a normal full moon – but much dimmer and fuzzier). As soon as I viewed totality with the naked eye, the redness returned. Anyone know why?
August 28th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I saw the eclipse. It was pretty cool, but most of the time there was a thin cloud over the Moon in the sky so we didn’t really see it too clearly. Still, it’s not every night you see a red moon. (Or reddish-orangey-brown)