h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's going to be a lunar eclipse on October 27/28 which will be visible for almost everyone in the Americas and Western Europe.
The moon will enter the lighter, penumbral shadow of the Earth at 01.05 BST and the darker umbral shadow at 02.14. It will be completely immersed in the Earth's shadow (totally eclipsed) by 03.23am.
The moon will probably take on a beautiful brick-red hue as a result of light from the sun being refracted on to the lunar surface by the Earth's atmosphere. (It's like having an up-close and personal view of )
If you've never seen a total eclipse of the moon, don't miss this one. I hope you have clear skies & good weather.
The next chance will be in March 2007, according to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
Below is a timeline, for Eastern Daylight Time:
(Wed. Oct 27)
21:14 p.m.: Moon enters Earth's dark umbral shadow
22:23 p.m.: Totality begins
22:04 p.m.: Mid-eclipse
22:45 p.m.: Totality ends
00:54 a.m. (Oct. 28): Moon leaves the umbra.
In the Central Time Zone, subtract one hour from these times; in the Mountain Time Zone, two hours, and for the Pacific Time Zone, three hours.
Lucky Americans...shouldn't miss any sleep!

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/041022_eclipse_guide.html

Hey! They promised we can see the eclipse too. In the Eastern Europe, that is.

Thanks for the reminder GB. Hope the weather in wales improves. It's done nothing but rain for days here!

Herre is another useful site. http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/lunar.html . Fred Espinac's Eclipse pages.

turvy

Traveller in Time planning a nap in the evening
"I will be there "

Yippe! I get to see it

Traveller in Time on his head
"Hmm, busy night tomorrow, first the last episode, hen the 'webchat' then a nap, and a final with 'The dark side of the moon'
< F75657?thread=511535 > < <./>/radio4/hitchhikers/</.> >"

I hope you get to see it, Hati!

And I'm SO glad an "amateur astronomoer" got to see this:
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/10/25/comet_trail.html



...even though it wasn't me

If it's a clear night like last night, I'll set the alarm and get up again to see it!

You have an alarm clock??

Traveller in Time on the popup conversations
"Directly connected to the asterisk in the browser Title? "

I got up at 4am specially to watch it.
Clouds, clouds, clouds.

Traveller in Time on his head
"Sorry, this was about the only thread I did not post the storm warning. < F54784?thread=512947 > "

Why couldn't it be this clear last night???

turvy

Traveller in Time on his head
"Well, at leat we all had a good clear look at the clouds together."

We had a lovely view of tonight's red moon rising from 6 floors up (hey, I work twilights )

This is a great image of the Eclipse and interresting as well.

http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/27oct04g/lawrence1.jpg

turvy