The eclipse is starting!

[Musicat]

The lunar eclipse is starting - 5:32PM CST. Looking east, over Lake Michigan, on a clear, cold night, it's a beautiful sight. I'm going to take a telescope outside when it gets closer to totality.

Totality, from my vantage point, will be 7:06PM CST to 7:30PM.

Sorry, my webcam is pointing the wrong direction, and won't pick it up.

This is the last total lunar eclipse that will be visible from earth until April, 2007.

U.S. Naval Observatory Lunar Eclipse Computer (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html)

[Anita Vacation]

WAY! COOL!

[dangermom]

It's raining here. Poop.

[Musicat]

Originally posted by genie
It's raining here. Poop. Personally, I'd rather have cats and dogs than poop. :eek:

[fireman]

Overcast here, and I waited to see this. Crap!

[Musicat]

You poor guys, you-all live in the wrong place. Crystal-clear skies here.

The moon is being eaten by the moon-monster. A big chunk is already gone. My guess is it will continue.

Time for another beer.

[if6was9]

I saw just the beginnings of it and now it's completely clouded over. :(

[umop ap!sdn]

Dang! You mean there'll be more eclipses but they won't be visible from Earth? :) I'm kidding, of course, but someone was bound to point it out.

It's still daylight here in Oregon and besides being overcast, there's a lot of smoke. Thplbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt!

[danceswithcats]

Mr. Moon, where goest thou? Playful inhabitant of the nightly skies, showing thy face, yet sometimes hiding neath the shadows of blue.

Were you nibbled away, a white cookie silhouetting the trees of my woods, the darkness hungry to consume you?

The crescent of your smile foretells yet a future celestial game of hide and seek. Shall it be you or Mr. Sun who initiates the next round of syzygy, whilst I watch from this cerulean orb?

[AbbySthrnAccent]

It's totally clouded over here. :(

[Atreyu]

Perfect weather for moon-gazing here in Michigan. It's almost totally eclipsed now. Really cool.

[Shirley Ujest]

It is spanking clear here.

The kids were not impressed with the disappearing moon.

[Sqwerticus]

It's gone 1am here, and the eclipse is intermittently visible through the clouds. Don't know why, but we appear to have TWO moons - maybe it's the quantity of beer consumed.

[Parallax]

It is a bit cold here tonight (25F) and the sky is crystal clear. Great moon viewing unlike the damn clouds for the last eclipse. =)

[Musicat]

Originally posted by Shirley Ujest
The kids were not impressed with the disappearing moon. Kids! What's the matter with kids today!? :p

[Musicat]

It was awful cold outside, down by the lake, so we retreated just at totality. It didn't seem as red or dim as the eclipse in May. At least that one was warmer.

Hey, Steve & Chris -- you warming up at the fireplace?

[Engineer Dude]

Originally posted by Musicat
Time for another beer.

I hear that (opens another Amber Bock).

Hey, it's re-emerging now.

[tanookie]

Our kid seemed very impressed... she's a bit silly though. We wrapped her up in a blanket and took her outside (She's only 2 1/2) now she keeps asking me to swaddle her so she can go see the stars.

:)

[dantheman]

Originally posted by Musicat
Kids! What's the matter with kids today!? :p

Kids! Who can understand a word they say?

[Musicat]

Aw...it's happening again.

But in reverse. Ho-hum.

And while we're on the subject...kids!

Tanookie -- your kid will grow up to be a scientist. Not like Shirley Ujest's, who have no sense of wonder. ;)

[Atreyu]

Originally posted by Shirley Ujest
It is spanking clear here.

The kids were not impressed with the disappearing moon.

I must have been a weird kid, then. I remember when I was about eight or so staying up late one night just to watch a lunar eclipse.

Tonight's eclipse was only the second lunar eclipse that I've seen. The other times were obscured by cloud cover.

[Musicat]

Originally posted by cityboy916
Dang! You mean there'll be more eclipses but they won't be visible from Earth? :) I'm kidding, of course, but someone was bound to point it out.There's one in every crowd. :) Sure -- pick a planet, pick a moon...

[Anita Vacation]

I wasn't expecting this: It disappeared from left to right, and then reappeared from bottom to top!

[Lemur866]

Drop your weapons and give me the gold, or I won't bring back the moon.

[Musicat]

All gone. Nothing left but a plain ol' moon.

[Gorsnak]

Perfect viewing conditions for me. :) Crystal clear, and out on the farm away from light pollution to boot. It was amazing the way the stars came out as the moon dimmed, and the reflected earthshine on the moon made for a cool effect.

Pity it was -10C

[amarinth]

:smack: WHY do I always forget?
I meant to see it. This morning I reminded myself to see it. And I just remembered when I saw this thread. Far too late. And the sky was clear (when I was outside at 4 not remembering to go back out an hourlater.)

28th of October next year. ..... will I just not be able to see it?

[LifeOnWry]

It was chilly here, so the WryGuy and I made intermittent trips to the yard to watch. When the Terrible Teen and her pals got home from their shopping trip, they climbed up on top of the van to see better. None of them wearing coats, of course.

Once the moon was almost completely invisible, we came in for hot cocoa, then watched it reappear from the kitchen window. Anita - I said the same thing!

[Musicat]

It looks like I was wrong about the next total lunar eclipse. According to the U.S. Navy's list of solar & lunar eclipses, (http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/UpcomingEclipses.html) there will be one on May 4, 2004, and again on October 28, 2004. These won't be visible from everywhere, and the May 4 one not at all from North America. Last night's is the best one most of us will see for a long time.

originally posted by Anita Vacation
I wasn't expecting this: It disappeared from left to right, and then reappeared from bottom to top!
Space is curved, you know. :)

Let's do it again next time!

[Mooney252]

In Seattle it rose over the mountains, already in full eclipse. The color was an orange, as it was pretty hazy here. It gradually brightened.

This morning at 7 a.m. it was perfectly full and large, setting in the NW over the Puget Sound. That was just as beautiful.

[Hanna]

I went down to the local university's observatory and stood in line, in the cold, for 1.5 hours. Their telescope is brand new and it wasn't aligning properly.

I could still see the moon from the line part of the time, but I didn't bring my digital camera because it was really cold, the camera is huge, and I didn't feel like carrying it and my tripod.

They did have a smaller telescope set up outside, and I saw Alberio and M13 through it.

I finally made it through the line (my SO, who was wearing shorts, had managed to go up the steps to the observatory to stay warm, got one of the first views, cheater! I waited in the cold!) and it was cool. The astronomy guy had to manually align the 'scope with the moon after every few people.

Then I came home before the end, and managed to take a picture (http://home.comcast.net/~flaroe/112003eclipse.jpg) before it ended.

[Neidhart]

I could see it from my driveway. The moon turned brown!

Hercules' 13th labor: cleaning shit off the moon. :D

[mnemosyne]

I tried to take pictures, but who knows if they turned out? I didn't have a tripod, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to stay still for the length of the shutter. Oh well, it was fun to play with the camera, and really neat to watch the eclipse! We had a pretty good veiw from our apartment, up until close to totality, at which point we had to step out onto the balcony to see past the balcony from the apartment above ours. At least we were warm most of the time!

[Mudshark]

I saw it Saturday night while I was at work. I forgot all about it until some customers mentioned it.

[Genghis Bob]

We were driving home from Frankenmuth Michigan to Detroit when it started. We watched it out the car windows all the way home, then stood in the driveway until it was completely covered.

It was a beautiful, clear, very cold Michigan night. The moon turned a muted burnt umber - very autumnal.

And we were the only ones on our block who bothered to come out for it. As far as we could see in any direction, no people looking up besides us.

[dwc1970]

There was a thin layer of clouds here, but we could still see the moon through them. It didn't really look much different than a cresent moon through the clouds. The eclipse we had back in May was easier to see as the sky was clear then.