I was planning to skip last night's lunar eclipse because I've already got plenty of pictures of lunar eclipses. But then when the time came, naturally I had to go outside to see it. And then I had to take some pictures.
So here it is, about 90% full, which is all we got in California. According to EarthSky:
The eclipse belongs to Saros 131 in the catalog of lunar eclipses [which began in 1427]. It is number 34 of 72 eclipses in the series. All eclipses in this series occur at the moon’s descending node. The moon moves northward with respect to the node with each succeeding eclipse in the series.
The star right above the moon is Zubeneschmali. The star at about 45 degrees is Zubenelgenubi. The star to the far right of the moon is, um, Zubenelhakrabi? I'm not sure. But they're all in Libra, since that's where the moon was.
I was disappointed.
I have to get up at 0545 on Mondays to go to work, so I couldn't wait up for the eclipse. Instead, I went to sleep early with my alarm set for 2345 EDT, 26 minutes before totality. I woke up, went expectantly to my south-facing window, and saw...clouds. Lots of clouds. I was pretty wound up with anticipation, so it took me a while to get back to sleep.
I think the weatherman ought to coordinate better with the astronomers.
Agreed. But given prior experience with this stuff, I checked the local weather forecast and learned we'd still be overcast at 11:30 or so when this was supposed to start here. So I just went to bed.
You think that's bad. I was all set to watch the transit of Venus back in 2012, and we got completely socked in. Now I have to wait until 2117.
"So here it is, about 90% full, which is all we got in California."
Ahem ... we're in California and we got a total eclipse. It lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes, in fact. A cloudless night, an awesome view, and a chance to get outside, gaze skyward with the neighbors, and ponder our existence.
It seems to me that a lunar eclipse has the same totality for everyone who has a clear night sky at the right time. (I had total cloudy like a lot of others.)
Yes, of course, now that you mention it. Once the moon is fully in the earth’s shadow, it’s a total eclipse for all observers. (A solar eclipse, otoh, can be either partial or total depending on where you are.)
At the moment of the full moon/eclipse the Moon was at 25 degrees, 18 minutes of Scorpio...not Libra.
Perhaps a planetarium program would be in order. Stellarium is pretty good. Kstars is open source. Cartes du Ciel if you think all the realism just gets in the way. All are free.
There's gotta be a U2 song in there somewhere.
The moon emerged from the fire smoke/low clouds over the Sandias here in Albuquerque, already partially eclipsed. As it rose and the eclipse progressed, it became clearer. I was able to watch in real time as the last sliver of bright vanished and the rest of the disk seemed to light up. Then everything went black, due probably to increasing cloud cover plus eclipse totality. The clouds persisted and I didn't see the moon again until this morning, Tuesday.