Total Lunar Eclipse Feb 20-21

Total eclipse of October 2004, when the Red Sox won the World Series!

(I intended to publish this days ago, but my computer had problems. That will be the subject of my next post! LOL)

Get ready for a total lunar eclipse! The entire eclipse will be visible to most of the Western Hemisphere. It will begin during the evening of Wednesday the 20th for North and South America. Observers in Western Europe and West Africa will see it during the early morning hours of Thursday the 21st.

Below I have listed the North American times in which the different parts of the eclipse will occur. I left out the penumbra stages since that is not readily visible to the casual observer. I have included a link to the European Space Agency website where you will find their time tables listed at the end of this post.

Partial Eclipse begins 8:43 PM EST, 7:43 PM CST, 6:43 PM MST, and 5:43 PM PST
Total Eclipse begins . 10:00 PM EST, 9:00 PM CST, 8:00 PM MST, and 7:00 PM PST
Mid Eclipse begins ... 10:26 PM EST, 9:26 PM CST, 8:26 PM MST, and 7:26 PM PST
Total Eclipse ends ... 10:52 PM EST, 9:52 PM CST, 8:52 PM MST, and 7:52 PM PST
Partial Eclipse ends ..12:09 AM EST, 11:09 PM CST, 10:09 PM MST, and 9:09 PM PST

Unlike the last lunar eclipse on August 28, 2007 that began low on the horizon, this eclipse will find the moon high in the sky and perfect for observing the entire event. An added bonus this time will be the very bright "star" just northeast of the moon - the planet Saturn. Close by to the northwest will be the bright star Regulus. Saturn will shine at the largest and brightest it will appear all year. Whether you gaze at this pretty trio with your unaided eyes, binoculars or a telescope, it will be a spectacular sight.

The next total lunar eclipse visible to North and South America won't occur again until December 20 - 21 of 2010! I wish all the observers clear skies and decent temperatures!

Timetable from the European Space Agency

My report on the August 2007 lunar eclipse

See an animation of the eclipse here

Screen Capture Meme and Synchronicity

Mary at Mary's Writing Nook posted this unusal meme. She was tagged by Hootin Anni

I thought I would give it a try. It happens that my screen shot is related to a post I intend to make, hopefully by tomorrow, about the upcoming lunar eclipse. As fate would have it, I came across another meme at Michele's Writing the Cyber Highway that also relates to my article. This meme turned out to be even more of an example of synchronicity in kind of a eerie way. It involves grabbing the nearest book, turning to page 123 and copying a few sentences. Since I've begun researching my article, my nearest book is "Observer's Handbook 2008", which contains 324 pages covering all kinds of astronomy information, charts, graphs, and articles. Here is the eerie part - page 123 has a chart that lists the upcoming lunar eclipse!! Check out Michele's meme - it's fun!

Here's my screen shot:



Rules and How-tos for this meme:

1. Capture a picture of your computer’s desktop.
2. Post it on your blog along with a link to who tagged you.
3. Tag some people.

Here’s how you can do a screen capture:

1. View desktop and press the Print Scrn key (located in the upper right corner of your keyboard on the same row as the F12 key).
2. Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).
3. If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it, but it is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.

I only had one problem doing this. While following the directions, I put Mary's instructions up on my screen after I had pushed the Print Scrn key and I ended up with Mary's blog instead of my desktop. Keep the instructions on the taskbar!! LOL

Thanks, Mary, this was fun!