Total Lunar Eclipse, 28th August 2007

[Conan Troutman]

 

 

The Total Lunar Eclipse on August 28th 2007 will be visible in its entirety for all of Eastern Australia and New Zealand, and will be in progress at Moonrise for the remainder of Australia and most of Asia. It will be visible at Moonset for the Americas, and will not be visible at all for Africa, Europe and Western Asia.

FULL INFO

 

[Legba]

My sons teacher told him Mars would be bright tonight and set as homework to observe it. i checked the web and found there is a hoax email that pops up this time of year regarding Mars. it was close in '03 (i think) so it seems the email lives on. :D

i told my son to tell his teacher about this eclipse and to check the Sydney Observatory website for homework.

[Torsten]

if the moon is dark then mars will be bright

[PD.]

My sons teacher told him Mars would be bright tonight and set as homework to observe it. i checked the web and found there is a hoax email that pops up this time of year regarding Mars. it was close in '03 (i think) so it seems the email lives on. :D

goes somethin like this...

*27th Aug- the Whole World is waiting for.............*

>

> Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It

> will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will

> cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be

> sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth

> has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

> Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it

again.

[XipeTotec]

total lunar eclipse tonight

Tuesday August 28, 2007

The moon is expected to turn anything from a yellowish brown to a blood red in tonight's total lunar eclipse.

The eclipse, visible to the naked eye anywhere in Australia, will begin at sunset when the earth, the sun and the moon fall into perfect alignment.

The moon's surface will darken as the earth's shadow creeps across it to create a partial eclipse from just before 7pm (AEST), with the total eclipse visible one hour later.Although it will be a total eclipse the ring of light around the earth's edge is enough to illuminate the moon's surface.

If there is enough dust in the earth's atmosphere the surface will appear blood red.

An eclipse occurs when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun's light. It is rare because the moon is usually either above or below the plane of the earth's orbit."It is a pretty sight and it's an unusual sight so it's worth looking at," said Professor Mike Dopita from the Australian National University's School of Astronomy.

"The moon gets this sometimes quite blood red colour and it's quite an interesting sight to see although it is of no astronomical importance at all."

Prof Dopita said it was hard to predict exactly what colour the moon would be.

"It really varies. Sometimes it's a kind of a sunset yellowish colour, sometimes it looks quite red. It depends upon whether there's been volcanic activity.

"When there's more dust it turns redder. After Mt Pinatubo Volcano (in the Philippines) erupted (in 1991) there was lots and lots of dust in the atmosphere but that has all settled.

"It might be anything from a yellowish earthy colour to a really dull brownish colour passing through red and in between, but an unusual colour to see the moon anyway."

The last total lunar eclipse, visible in Australia, was in July 2000.

Prof Dopita said total eclipses were relatively infrequent.

"There's usually about two of them a year but they are usually partial: a total one is a little bit rarer," he said.

The next total lunar eclipse visible in Australia will occur in December 2011.

Edited August 27, 2007 by XipeTotec

[mescalito]

Looking really cool

ahh for some tryptamines right now...

[tonic]

Looks amazing, can't wait to see the full eclipse.

[Conan Troutman]

Looks amazing, can't wait to see the full eclipse.

looks quite apocalyptic...or that might be just me!

beautiful indeed...

[tardistestpilot]

dam to much cloud where i am to see it very well

[shruman]

AAhhhh what a night!!

[strangebrew]

Well that was pretty awesome - couldn't get much redder than that.

It'd been cloudy all day then right around sunset it all blew away just in time.

[RonnySimulacrum]

I was at work till 9, but i got the end of it

[mu!]

Damn, only really saw it as being pale red, and even then it was sort of covered with dark parts. Hopefully the next one is better..

[apothecary]

Looked awesome here.

I don't celebrate my birthdays anymore (more interested in celebrating accomplishment), but my two best friends insist on getting me something, this year I demanded a telescope hoping the ridiculous request would put them off once and for all... goddamnit I ended up with a telescope

So we drove the unassembled hunk up to a nice lookout on the northern beaches and got a pretty sweet look through the "Barlow Lens"

Very red here, I read that the colour is dependant on how much dust is in the air between the viewer and moon, I guess pollution particles count too hehe.

[Ace]

She was a pretty awesome sight - I popped my head out every few mins to check out the progress over the ~8.15 - ~9.00 mark. Just unreal to see the intense red/brown colouring and the undefined shadow pass over the moon. And did anyone check it out after about 10pm? Fark - gotta be the brightest I've seen the moon! Deadset - there was light pouring in the window (lights out, but still bright enough not to need them!) with shadows everywhere. It would have been an unreal night to sleep under the stars with a few fungal friends Ahh well, maybe in 2011...

[Legba]

That was something special.

I watched the Moon thru the trees in my front yard. At one point it looked like an orange on a branch. As it went thru the eclipse phase it seemed to change its appearance thru the smoggy, dusty haze. A few planes flew past as i was watching. It would have looked awesome from the cockpit.

Edited August 29, 2007 by Bacchant

[Ace]

Just got this pic via email - taken on the shore of Lake Curly Gherkin (Lake Burley Griffin) in Canberra. Quite a sight!

Edited August 29, 2007 by Ace

[XipeTotec]

I don't celebrate my birthdays anymore (more interested in celebrating accomplishment)

why wouldnt you want to celebrate the coming of your existence (outside of the womb ofcourse)?

[Conan Troutman]

wow...great pic Ace, I found the last phase quite spectacular, watching the moon return to its full glory!

[KanJe]

I really enjoyed the sight.

Do you guys think it was smog that made the colour so red? I live in the city so I'm not sure.

Or would it have been red to people in the country even...?

[Ace]

The red colour was caused by gasses in the Earths atmosphere, but not neccessarily just smog. Though I could imagine being in a densely smoggy city it could portray a vastly different colouring from that seen in a quiet rural setting.

[incognito]

totally amazing!!! watched it from my room window!!!!

but the moon the night before had me quite un-nerved, it felt really ominous and foreboding, like it was staring straight into my soul!!!

the effects of the moon on human emotions and behaviors has always fascinated me, well since the beggining of my career in hospitality, packed house on a full moon in the central west is not the place u wanna be. eyes start rolling down stairs and peeps generally going bananas. maybee the rememberence and identification of this behaviors on full moons has perverted my own self on full moons. or maybee im just insane like they tell me.

[simon_marklar]

[Ace]

Nice on Simon

On the topic of full moons: Haha - I cant believe Xipe didnt beat us to that one!