I got home tonight just in time to catch the full lunar eclipse. Although my crappy dinosaur of a camera doesn't really do it justice, it was quite stunning here in Oxford. Observers across Europe, Africa, and East Asia had an excellent view of the eclipse tonight, and some viewers in the U.S. might just catch the end as the moon rises and sun sets this evening.
As the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon (an event that only happens once every couple of years), the moon is almost completely obscured from the sun's light, except for a few rays refracted through the Earth's atmosphere. As the shorter wavelengths of light tend to be filtered out by the Earth's atmosphere, only red light makes it through to be reflected off of the moon, giving it the blood red hue observed tonight.
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As luck would have it, the damned clouds moved in at about 4PM and didn't go away. So I was unable to view the eclipse. Thanks for the photo.
eclipse
by
Jonathan Vos Post
Life goes on
though sometimes you have doubts
The sun comes up
the moon comes out
Where is the shadow
in the daylight?
Death goes on
with closed or open eyes
The stars are overhead
wal;k thorugh the leaves
Walk downhill slowly
where the mist is white
1720-1730
26 Feb 1979
I saw it clearly here in the caribbean... absolutely beautiful. Red and smoky and luscious. I have to check out if the solar eclipse will be visible later this month...
Where you drunk?
:-)
i am soo mad at my self... i am not even a teenager and i missed my first lunar eclips and even my daddy slept through it.