An event that isn't making many waves in the voracious US news cycle is the total lunar eclipse that will occur tonight. We will be able to see the entire event in Saudi Arabia. It won't be visible from any location in North America, however. I was surprised to learn that there will be another lunar eclipse and one solar eclipse in 2011.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon's path takes it across the Earth's shadow. It becomes a total eclipse when the lunar path crosses the center of the Earth's shadow. It is going to take the moon nearly two hours to cross out of the plane of the ecliptic. The local religious leaders are urging Muslims to spend that time praying. In contrast, western expats are heading to beaches to dabble our toes in the Arabian Gulf and drink whine with friends. Good thing I bottled a totally awesome batch of red last weekend--I added two jars of natural cranberry preserves during fermentation. The preserves were a bit of a pain to deal with during bottling as the cranberry pulp kept clogging up the tubing parts but my, did they ever contribute to a tasty result.
Addendum: The eclipse was fabulous. The moon looked fake, like it belonged in some 6th grader's science project on the Solar System, a styrofoam ball painted pink and purple. Our small group, about a dozen including a couple of kids, passed the binoculars around and around, oohing and aahing. One guy went swimming while the moon was totally blacked out--and as an unexpected surprise, we could see sparkling swirls of bioluminescence around his arms and feet (dinoflagellates, microscopic single-celled animals are the source). It looked like he was making snow angels in the water.
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| Who will be able to see the lunar eclipse tonight? |
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon's path takes it across the Earth's shadow. It becomes a total eclipse when the lunar path crosses the center of the Earth's shadow. It is going to take the moon nearly two hours to cross out of the plane of the ecliptic. The local religious leaders are urging Muslims to spend that time praying. In contrast, western expats are heading to beaches to dabble our toes in the Arabian Gulf and drink whine with friends. Good thing I bottled a totally awesome batch of red last weekend--I added two jars of natural cranberry preserves during fermentation. The preserves were a bit of a pain to deal with during bottling as the cranberry pulp kept clogging up the tubing parts but my, did they ever contribute to a tasty result.
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The path of the moon across the Earth's ecliptic. Times are UT; times of the event in Saudi Arabia are two hours later. |
Addendum: The eclipse was fabulous. The moon looked fake, like it belonged in some 6th grader's science project on the Solar System, a styrofoam ball painted pink and purple. Our small group, about a dozen including a couple of kids, passed the binoculars around and around, oohing and aahing. One guy went swimming while the moon was totally blacked out--and as an unexpected surprise, we could see sparkling swirls of bioluminescence around his arms and feet (dinoflagellates, microscopic single-celled animals are the source). It looked like he was making snow angels in the water.
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