Author Topic: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?  (Read 957 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline rickl

  • Established Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1493
Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
« on: February 21, 2011, 07:23:00 PM »
Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by libertasinfinitio on Dec 19, 2010, 4:27pm

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/1....test=latestnews

Great. Snow showers through Tuesday. My day is likely to be the darkest...ever!



 

Maybe some others will be lucky enough to see the eclipse.

Not me...


Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by charlesoakwood on Dec 19, 2010, 4:42pm

Going to stay up for this one! WUWT says 1378. either date is historical.

The eclipse begins on Tuesday morning, Dec. 21st, at 1:33 am EST (Monday, Dec. 20th, at 10:33 pm PST). At that time, Earth’s shadow will appear as a dark-red bite at the edge of the lunar disk. It takes about an hour for the “bite” to expand and swallow the entire Moon. Totality commences at 02:41 am EST (11:41 pm PST) and lasts for 72 minutes.

If you’re planning to dash out for only one quick look -  it is December, after all -  choose this moment: 03:17 am EST (17 minutes past midnight PST). That’s when the Moon will be in deepest shadow, displaying the most fantastic shades of coppery red.





Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by pandora on Dec 19, 2010, 4:56pm

Really. I'll have to take a nap, then I should make it til 3:17.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by charlesoakwood on Dec 20, 2010, 7:32pm

OTTAWA speaks

Quote:

"Wiccans don't think of things as being good or evil — they just are. Our experience of them makes them positive or negative for us."


Kind of like the US Congress huh?
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by charlesoakwood on Dec 21, 2010, 1:27am

Whelp, weatherman got it wrong again. Clear skies are actually low, heavy, gray clouds.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by glock32 on Dec 21, 2010, 1:29am

Yep we're clouded in here too. I can't even tell where in the sky the moon is.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by pandora on Dec 21, 2010, 2:42am

No joy here either; socked in.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by sectionhand on Dec 21, 2010, 8:09am

Crappy skies here . But I'll still be around to laugh my ass off on Dec. 22 , 2012 !
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by rickl on Dec 21, 2010, 8:35pm

It was clear here but I was tired and went to bed early. I just didn't have any enthusiasm for standing around in 20º weather at 3:00 in the morning on a work night. Time was I would have done it, though. I've seen a bunch of lunar eclipses. I guess I'm getting old.

Maybe the next one will be in the evening when it's warmer.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by rickl on Dec 21, 2010, 9:42pm

Here's your one-stop source for planning future lunar eclipse viewing:

NASA Eclipse Website

The next total eclipse is on Dec. 10, 2011, but only portions of it will be visible in North America. Looks like the one I'm hoping for will be on the evening of Sept. 27, 2015 (Sept. 28 UT). There are two in 2014 but they are both in the predawn hours. Still, they're in April and October, which isn't so bad. Click on the date of each eclipse to see diagrams, maps, and times.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by alphabetsoup on Dec 21, 2010, 10:09pm

February 26, 1979

I heard about the eclipse and blew off work to go see it with my girlfriend. We traveled down to Washington/Oregon border with the Stonehenge exhibit at Maryhill Washington as our destination. I made a wrong turn in Vancouver and ran out of time so we pulled off somewhere outside of The Dalles to watch.

I had a little idea what to expect from all the yak-yak on the boob-tube - mostly the warnings about not looking directly into the sun LOL.

We sat outside our van in a parking lot with some other stragglers drinking beer and comparing notes about who had traveled the farthest.

Suddenly, not suddenly but suddenly we noticed that the birds had flown to ground. It got eerily quiet and we noticed that the cows and a few horses had laid down. Now it was deathly still. It was like everyone was holding their breath.

There was a flicker - sort of like when the sun goes behind the clouds. Then another. Then the entire landscape came alive as waves of sun washed over the hillside. Without a sound, but with an intensity that was thunderous, it grew in volume and urgency. It was like some sort of global strobe that enveloped the land in a kaleidoscope of color and light.

One of my fellow travelers had set up an apparatus that allowed us to look at the reflected image of the sun. I tried to take a picture of the display but it didn't turn out. Soon enough the eclipse reached its totality.

For a moment it was less than twilight.

Then the sun returned again and life returned to normal. It was a magical moment that I will never forget.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by rickl on Dec 21, 2010, 11:47pm

That's cool. I've never seen a total solar eclipse. I've seen two that were more than 90% partial, and the sky gets dim, sort of like twilight. The temperature drops, and you can see crescent images of the sun in the leaves of trees.
Re: Will Tuesday Be the Darkest Day in 456 Years?
Post by libertasinfinitio on Dec 22, 2010, 7:47am

I've never seen a total, and the partial's I've seen were almost always on partly to mostly cloudy days, and you had to catch peeks between clouds. Still kinda cool but not the jaw-dropping awe-inspiring effect of being dead-center in a total. I think the August 1990 was the last one I remember getting a quick peek at.

Anybody ever go on one of those eclipse cruises? That could be fun!
We are so far past and beyond the “long train of abuses and usurpations” that the Colonists and Founders experienced and which necessitated the Revolutionary War that they aren’t even visible in the rear-view mirror.
~ Ann Barnhardt