2 posts tagged “astronomy”
In about three hours, a lunar eclipse will (begin to) be visible from some parts of the planet.
For the astro-savvy (or astro-curious), a blurb from NASA:
The eclipse occurs at the ascending node of Luna's orbit in southern Aquarius. Since the Moon is 2.6 days shy of perigee, it will appear 8% larger (= 1.2 arc-minutes) than it was during March's eclipse. The Moon's trajectory takes it deep into the southern umbral shadow, resulting in a total eclipse that lasts 90 minutes. At mid-totality the Moon's centre passes just 12.8 arc-minutes south of the shadow axis. This places the Moon's northern limb only 3.4 arc-minutes north of the axis while the southern limb is 15.4 arc-minutes from the umbra's southern edge.
Since different parts of the Moon will probe radically different portions of Earth's umbral shadow, a large variation in shadow brightness can be expected. As a consequence of this geometry, the southern half of the totally eclipsed Moon will appear considerably brighter than the northern half. Observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at mid-totality (see Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness).
The penumbral phase of August's eclipse begins at about 07:54 UT, but most observers will not be able to visually detect the shadow until about 08:30 UT. A timetable for the major phases of the eclipse is listed below.
Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 07:53:39 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 08:51:16 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 09:52:22 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 10:37:22 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 11:22:24 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 12:23:30 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 13:21:01 UT
Fortunately, I'm at a location where I'll have a great view of the eclipse. Unfortunately, I don't have my camera, tripod, or even binoculars. I trust that other, more responsible folks will provide plenty of photo-documentation.
Exciting news! It seems that there is the possibility of Earth-like life habitat existing on another planet in the "neighborhood."
It's good to know there's another planet we can take over and destroy when push comes to shove with this whole global warming thing. Maybe we should send an oil exploratory team there to investigate first.
