Well, since the eclipse here in Boulder was almost a total bust (haha, get it?) — thin but varying clouds obscured it, though as I write this a thin crescent of lit Moon can be seen, kinda — I might as well let you know that the new Tangled Bank carnival of science is up at Greg’s place. Lots of fancy schmancy sciencey thingies there.
Update: looks like the satellite smack-down was postponed, too.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
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.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
|
| Bad Astronomy is a Wikio Top Blog! Clearly, Wikio has excellent taste. | |
 | ||
 | Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. |
 |
"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
February 20th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I’ll just hafta go over there and check out Tangled Bank. Thanks!
I’m getting nice eclipse photos here in Virginia. I’ll do a composite image tonight and see if SpaceWeather will post it.
Clouds blocked the very start of penumbral eclipse but were long gone when the umbral fun began! I’m just getting my fingers warm again here on-line. Totality is soon, so I gotta buzz off now!
Rich
February 20th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
A damn fog bank closed in just as it got to the good bit here in UK too! I’m seeing NOTHING! This is me cursing anf muttering about the damned British weather : (
February 20th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Nothing but clouds. Rats.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Looking great here in Eastern Ontario. Clear night, no clouds, everything visible!
Great eclipse!
February 20th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Here in north Jersey I got a nice view of it. A few clouds but they cleared up just in time. Miraculous!
February 20th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Crystal clear and beautiful here just south of Chicago. Much more red than I recall from past eclipses. Saturn’s remarkably bright, too.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
The view is phenomenal here in Central PA right now. It appears to be entering the planetary umbra now.
Unfortunately, it’s too cold to stay outside for an extended period of time, so I watched it “flash out” and now I’m checking back every few minutes.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Ahaha, weather.com said that it would be a cloudy day with snow…
We got a sunshiny day with an eclipse night! SWEET ECLIPSE!
February 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Like Dave, I’m in Central PA, too. 19F outside. I lasted as long as I could, but I can’t go out anymore. Here’s my best shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaufman/2280251777/
February 20th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Saw about half an hour of the eclipse, good viewing here not a cloud in the sky, but cold.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
not only clouded, but with heavy rain. wich is weird since here it rains only 3 to 4 times a year. im 60 km east from CASLEO ( an astronomical observatory in Argentina with a 2.15M telescope) so its suposed to be a place with clear skies… except for the last 4 lunar eclipses (and the leonids)
this is so frustrating!
February 20th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Here in Minnesota it’s crystal clear, no clouds or anything, just super cold.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
We saw it go to totality through a hole in the clouds out here in Port Angeles, WA. Pretty neat. Now the clouds are coming in, so we won’t be watching for the return of the crescent. Talk about luck.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I am looking at the eclipse from near Washington, DC. Considering that it was snowing at 7:00 PM, it is most fortunate that the skies are completely clear right now.
Can someone tell me what the two bright stars are that are at 12:30 and 8:30 relative to the moon?
J. D.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
“Update: looks like the satellite smack-down was postponed, too.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/20/satellite.shootdown/index.html
CNN disagrees O_o
February 20th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Rueters says the same. Satellite was taken out.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Some of you people think that 19F is COLD?
HA! I laugh at your feeble bodies!
It’s -2F here in St. Paul, MN right now. Now THAT is cold!
I’m looking forward to when it warms up to 19F at night around here. Sounds pretty balmy to me. Then I might even be able to get my telescope out again.
At least we got a nice, cloudless sky for the eclipse. I think all gases in the atmosphere may have condensed out at this temperature, leaving pristine vacuum between us and the moon. Probably why it’s so hard to breathe outside.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
The kids and I saw it in South Jersey. It was reddish and the moon didn’t darken like I remembered in a past eclipse. Any idea why?
February 20th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Psh. -2? I laugh at your -2! That’s warm! We had a neat -40F not long ago here in Quebec City. ;P
February 20th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
@Ron: Partial eclipse perhaps? When it’s partial, the hidden part looks pretty black. In fact, the start of the eclipse and the end of it tonight looks dark!
A total eclipse pretty much is always red when it’s 100%.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I am wondering about the timing of the Space Shuttle landing today. They were way over the clouds the day before the total lunar eclipse that is happing right now. I wonder how many of those grounded astronauts felt about missing the event from orbit?
From my location on the ground, I was lucky to observe a perfect sight of this celestial event through binoculars. Ohio does have cloud cover very often during the winter. Eclipse watchers here also got a clear view of the last lunar eclipse right before sunrise on August 28, 2007. The moon tonight turned red and orange. The Aug 2007 eclipse turned the moon into a purple-blue color. What is the cause of red-orange vs. purple-blue moon coloring?
February 20th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Beautiful eclipse here in NW FL. 50s here.
Michelle, I’m seeing the same CNN report on the satellite shootdown. Just a source report so far, though.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Well, FOXNews is reporting the satellite was hit, so it HAS to be true…
February 20th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Both the eclipse and the satellite intercept worked as advertised and were precisely on time (when can you say that about celestial mechanics and the military in the same sentence?
. Check out this post about the DoD’s official word – and links to some great eclipse pictures!
February 20th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Michelle,
I once had a friend from Ontario (no, this isn’t the start of a limerick) who volunteered that if the US were to invade Quebec and claim it as our 51st state, he didn’t think anyone else in Canada would mind! Funny, I don’t think it was because it gets so cold in QC that he said that.
In any case, I bow to your superior frigidness! ;P
February 20th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Started off with variable clouds at 8:45 and began to clear up as the night wore on. By 11:30 I was done. It’s only 23 F which isn’t horribly cold but gets cold enough when your trying to adjust your scope at all the objects that appeared at total eclipse. What a fun night. 17P Holmes looked wonderful and I finally caught Saturn’s rings. Sorry for the folks with the lousy weather.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
It’s warm here in Alabama. The eclipse was clouded out at about the same time it reached totality. I did manage to get a few shots, though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perry_g/sets/72157603954052761/
February 20th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Here in So Cal the clouds broke up for a nice view. We are, after all, the One True Promised Land.
I was outside with just a T-shirt.
I once had a friend from Ontario (no, this isn’t the start of a limerick)
I once had a friend from Ontario,
Who was really quite the Lothario.
He forgot to view the eclipse,
Distracted by feminine lips,
In a less than romantic scenario.
Damn, I’m good.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
We had overcast skies and occasional feeble attempts at snow all day in the Phila. PA area, but things cleared up around 8pm, so we did get to see the eclipse. (My neighbor down the hall was joking about pulling the fire alarm at 10:30 to get everyone outside to see it.)
I was out for about 20 minutes with my cheap binocs (around 30F here, not too bad with a ski jacket). I noticed the two bright “stars” and decided that the one to the moon’s lower left must be a planet. Saturn, you say? What was the star above the moon? Nice show, whatever it was.
@Daniel Fischer: Ah, but did the satellite shootdown come in under budget? On time is only half the deal!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
J. D. Mack & madlol:
It’s Saturn to the left and Regulus above the Moon (with North to your back).
Good one Quiet Desp.!But you knew that…
It’s so cold here that the LN in the Dewar froze solid! Had to chip it out with an ice pick and put it on the fire to chill the detectors!
;-D
Rich
February 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Well I am at work tonight but right before the eclipse went for my lunch and saw and tried to take a pics with my digital camera, a worker tried the previous half an hour going back and forth between two cameras.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:06 am
For once, I’m in the right place at the right time — central Nebraska, achingly clear skies, spectacular view. Of course, it was too damned cold to go outside for it, but I did get to hold my seven-day-old nephew up to see it through the window. He even opened his eyes, which… hey, probably the greatest sense of accomplishment I’ll have all week.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:32 am
I am an airline pilot and we were flying over the rockies tonight and got a wonderful view. we did a few turns after coordinating with atc so the pax could get a view too
February 21st, 2008 at 1:04 am
@Richard: Thanks!
Too much light pollution around here to tell what’s what except that it had to be something pretty bright – we have a high school on one side and a small college on the other, both of which keep the lights blazing in their parking lots all night long. :-\
@Matt: I noticed the planes flying over while I was out, and wondered how the view was from up there!
February 21st, 2008 at 1:34 am
The only thing I saw at 3.26am this morning was the inside of my eyelids.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:48 am
@SteveT: Oh I’m not surprised… I mean, French Canada is a pain in the behind area.
I love the cold and winter though
It’s a pain for other reasons.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:55 am
Beautiful view from Indiana, got to try out a new camera. Once I finally figured out the right settings, I got some decent shots. Nothing worth publishing, but fine for the scrapbook.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:51 am
I watched for a while, but remember that this whole “eclipse” thing is *just a theory*. My own theory involves a giant space turtle. There are details on my blog. That’s right, I’m an “eclipse truther.”
http://tiny.cc/0COXq
February 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am
Crystal clear throughout the eclipse for us here in Frost Heaves, MA. It was lovely!
February 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
I had a spectacular view from southern Wisconsin, though frigid doesn’t even begin to describe the temperature! (I think my toes are still thawing out several hours later.) I’m always amazed during total lunar eclipses how many stars one can see right next to the full moon. I know WHY they’re visible, but it’s such an unusual sight, that it still amazes me.
I’d love to take a look at Earth from the lunar surface during totallity; the ‘halo’ our atmosphere must make around our homeworld would be a gorgeous sight to behold!
February 21st, 2008 at 11:20 am
BA: Patience was required last night. I was at the Sommers-Bausch Observatory open house for the event and we got some pretty good looks at it, in between clouds. Near the end, I saw it beautifully from Gunbarrel, too. ’twas a fun evening at SBO, even during the cloudy bits.