Tonight's Total Lunar Eclipse Set To Be Best In Years - europe, africa, south america, east usa canada

A total lunar eclipse is scheduled for tonight. It will begin at 20.18 GMT with the moon being totally in the Earth's shadow from 22.44 GMT and 23.58 GMT.

The only light that will reach the moon will be that that has gone through the Earth's atmosphere, turning the moon red. It will be like looking at Mars:



The eclipse will be visible from the following places:

• Europe
  
• Africa
  
• South America
  
• Eastern parts of the USA and Canada.

Depending on where you are in the world, will also depend on how good a view you get:



The next eclipse like this to be seen from Western Europe will be between 3.00am and 4.00am on the 21/2/2008.

Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6411991.stm

Thanks to the BBC for the pictures.

 

 

 

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Wow! Thats really cool! I never knew today was the eclipse! Thanks for the notice; I'll look for it tonight !

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

that would start in about an hour from now. anyway, i'm in the farther part on the east side, so by the time it reaches the umbra zone, i won't be able to see it anymore since it's morning here during that time.

if anyone's nice enough to send me some pics if you're going to take a shot at it. i would really love to see some uber-cool red moon.

good thing lunar eclipses happen frequently compared to solar eclipses. the next lunar eclipse would be in 2008 if i'm not mistaken.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

There's been nothing as of yet but it is the most perfect night to view this spectacle, should I ever see it. Not a cloud. How about that for a clear sky?



The image is a bit blurry I know. I'll try and get some sharper ones when the moon goes red. Only 80 minutes till the main event begins

If anyone else wants to post some pictures, I'd love to see them.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

I didn't think we'd be able to see it? Since it'd be night time? But cool! I'm gunna go look for it

:S I'm confused, what's cutting off the moon? It can't be the sun, coz we'd see it, and you said "The earth's gunna be in the moons shadow"...So shouldn't the moon be cutting off the sun?

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Yeah, it's going to be the best in years...that is if you can see it at all....the stupid weather was so clear all day , and in the last few hours it got so cloudy, there is not a single star up there....Damn, I can't see a s**t even if I step in it outside...excuse my language. ...I so hoped I will see the lunar eclise....well maybe next year...or maybe the sky will become clear in a few hours...doubt it. It even started raining. Well guys....enjoy it. Take pictures, post them so we can all see this thing happening.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

it must be a typo error. and if it's not, he's probably confused with the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse.

oh and i forgot to mention that i missed it 30 minutes before it starts here, i fell asleep. isn't that great?

 

 

 

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

No it's the other way round. The light went SUN -> EARTH -> MOON. Like I said:



It was a great night and the cloud held back. My pictures weren't particularly good but you can see what happened:



This was half way through the stage where the moon was being cut off. In about 20 minute's time it will go red!



This is the moon half-red. Here on in, the moon gets gradually redder but my camera doesn't show the moon any more! It just shows as blackness. When it was red though, it was both amazing and really weird at the same time.

Anyway, here's another image I acquired the from the BBC to show you what it was like:



Obviously it was a bit smaller than that when you looked at it from the ground because that was taken from the top of Big Ben!

Does anybody else have some pictures that they took?

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

it's kinda weird that the moon looked too small in your images. and it looked like it was just a crescent moon and not an eclipse. but seriously, thanks for the pics.

i'm gonna take a look at some of the pics on the news.

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)

Too bad I missed. According to the map, it looks like I wouldn't have been able to see much of it in my part of the world anyway. Oh well, at least I got to see some pics of the event. Thanks for posting them in this thread!

Comment/Reply (w/o sign-up)