Eclipse

[Karen]

Nerd alert - no hard feelings for no responses.

Last night at 1:33 am was the first time in 372 years a total lunar eclipse has fallen on the same day as the winter solstice. It will not happen again in our lifetimes:

“Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years for NASA. - “Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21,” Chester said, according to NASA. “Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one ... that will be on 2094 DEC 21.”” aolnews.com (http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/19/lunar-eclipse-december-2010-falls-on-winter-solstice/)

I was going to retire early and set alarm clock, but got home late and tried to stay awake instead. Fell asleep in front of TV (Conan at 11), then amazingly woke up at 1:30! It was perfectly still outside – and perfectly cloudy, but not so thick as to prevent illumination of the snow. So I thought at least I would see the effect of the eclipse as the snowy surroundings got darker. At about 1:55 there was a small hole in the cloud cover right under the moon and I saw the eclipse for about 30 seconds as it looks at 00:50 on this video: 12/21/10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkT7necDLzI .)

That, and being outside alone at night in the perfect stillness was enough.

Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pECzUMVcKqA)

[joester]

You are NOT the only one here who thinks this was VERY cool.
'twas very cloudy here in the Arizona desert - but the glow of the rust/orange color was visible thru the clouds still.

[eric]

Nice Karen!

[Hindu Bodhcong Pala]

I was going to make an outrageous response to this, but I thought I better not. But I am reminded that in Vert Mont in the deep cold winter nights, you go walking and there is not any wind at all: and the trees POP. They are freeze drying. Eclipses and cosmotic stuff are really neat. Recently I have been promoting the idea that; because the science is actually not objective, that it cannot even tell any student where the center of our own Galaxy is located. So what's needed is a hand-held hologrammatic box, that you take out into the garden on any night, and an orange dayglow pointer points to the center of our Galaxy.

[Karen]

I was going to make an outrageous response to this, but I thought I better not. But I am reminded that in Vert Mont in the deep cold winter nights, you go walking and there is not any wind at all: and the trees POP. They are freeze drying. Eclipses and cosmotic stuff are really neat. Recently I have been promoting the idea that; because the science is actually not objective, that it cannot even tell any student where the center of our own Galaxy is located. So what's needed is a hand-held hologrammatic box, that you take out into the garden on any night, and an orange dayglow pointer points to the center of our Galaxy.

I would certainly want one of those boxes if they existed. Meanwhile, I’m glad we have the Hubble telescope to show us things out in the universe beyond our range of vision. A week or so ago, I watched an excellent History Channel program on the evolution of telescopes from Galileo up to the present – it was fascinating.

If you have an android phone, you can get an app that identifies planets, stars and constellations when you point it at the sky – googleskymap (htthttp://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/p://)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COlvfEXvOlw


And, that's a lovely thought about walking out “in the deep cold winter nights."