From Spaceweather.com
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE: Earlier today, for the first time in 372 years, a total lunar eclipse occurred on the date of the northern winter solstice. Observers in North America were favored with an overhead view as the full Moon slipped in and out of Earth’s eerie red shadow. Jonathan Sabin sends this picture from Ellenton, Florida:
Photo details: 10″ Meade LX200, Nikon D300, prime focus,ISO 1250, 2s exposure
“It was an absolutely gorgeous night for an eclipse!” says Sabin.
Sabin’s photo captured not only the red light at the core of Earth’s shadow caused by sunlight filtering through the stratosphere, but also the “turquoise fringe” caused by our planet’s ozone layer. Pictures like this are golden for researchers who look at the colors of eclipses to diagnose the state of Earth’s atmosphere. See “All-Clear in the Stratosphere,” below.
more images: from Rod Lindley of Dallas, TX; from Kevin R. Witman of Cochranville, Pennsylvania; from John W. O’Neal, II of Amherst, Ohio; from Evan Ludes of Omaha, Nebraska; from John Stetson of Southport, CT; from Mark A. Brown of Carlisle, Pennsylvania; from Giancarlo Ubaldo Nappi of Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil; from Phil Harrington of Long Island, NY; from Mike Mezeul II of Sachse, Texas
See the Lunar Eclipse Photo Gallery
You have obviously been consumed by some wikileaks, and does that mean they piss themselves?
Cheers
Denis
The great thing about lunar eclipses is that they are not always the classic “blood red” color. I can remember one that was a deep purple. The oddest one I saw had almost no color, just a dull gray sphere that looked for all the world like a dimly lit cue ball hanging in space.
Too cloudy here in Tauranga New Zealand. Other parts of the country had a good view I’m informed. Hope fully June 2011 and Dec 2011 will provide us with a better show.
Apologies, off-topic but:
UK Telegraph leader writer breaks ranks…
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/100069247/the-hidden-result-of-cancun-dictators-get-more-gas-guzzling-cars-and-private-jets/
Just after 0710 (British Winter Time) on 21/12/2010, gin-clear morning after a cracking overnight frost, still dark, driving into Chichester, West Sussex from the south. I stopped at the side of the road, as did number of others, and watched a low-in-the-sky full moon turn colour. The colour transformation was enhanced by the reflection from the snow and frost on the fields around.
Beautiful!
It’s now 2320 on the same day, we’ve got freezing fog and zero visibility of the sky.
Rhoda R says:
December 21, 2010 at 10:41 am
thegoodlocust says:
December 21, 2010 at 1:18 pm
This isn’t exactly the same, but close:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Asimov_short_story)
i got out 4 times during the night too watch this but there was to much cloud has usual…. here in Quebec we always miss everything because of the cloud.
Missed the eclipse here in Northern Ireland due to bank of freezing fog to NW. Some people locally did catch glimpses of it. Totality was in progress at moonset and sunrise. Incidentally, while the eclipse was proceding behind the fog, my weather station (unaccredited) was recording an all time minimum, -13.6C, since I started records in 1993. The way things are going tonight that record may not last for long.
Looked great from a frosty and clear Yorkshire at 8am this morning. Just wish I’d had the photographic gear available to do it justice.
In Canberra, the eclipsed moon rose in the North East at 8:35 following the Sun set in the South West as the three bodies form a straight line and was nicely framed by the trees. Only the top left was eclipsed in this location, no colour noticeable by me, just a greying out like a neutral density filter.
How could any mortal gazing at this not realise that the Earth is round/spherical?
I heard it was Tuesday night, i.e. tonight! Oops! Oh well, I’m in Massachusetts too, so I didn’t miss much. It was snowing when I got up this morning.
/Mr Lynn
Zeke -When is the next lunar eclipse?
For future and the way way past go to
http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/alert.html
Here’s what it looked like in Canberra, Australia, just after sunset:
http://the-riotact.com/
More images linked in the comments.
Afterwards, the moon was so huge and bright for most of the night that it was like a spotlight shining onto my curtains. Awesome.
Here is a Time-lapse complete with ethereal music.
Enjoyed it here in Reno…a little chilly, not bad. It looked like Orion was playing basketball. Radio said it would make the snow on the ground look cool, didn’t see anything in the snow…maybe should have headed out somewhere truly dark like Black Rock hotsprings for it. Will be there for 18th annual new years.
Enneagram
I note you comment about the coincidence of the date with that for the start of the Maunder Minimum.
I’m not much into numerology but have noticed that Piers Corbyn keeps giving hints about the influence of the cycles of the moon on the varying solar magnet flux and about the length of the double sunspot cycle.
He has the unfortunate knack of being able to accurately forecast most of the time.
So far I do not see much evidence for anything in the temperature or rainfall that cannot be explained by the change in the normal 60 odd year cycle from the hot-dry to the cold-wet phase.
I feel we should keep looking out for a big cycle change which could point the way you are suggesting.
Keeping an open mind is very difficult (including keeping open to the possibility that the warmists are actuall right, despite all their evidence being, how can I put it, XXXX).
Mind you, Mendel seems to have been right despite having a rather creative approach to his data.
Still it’s very unseasonally cold and wet here in most of Australia at present.
So the “All clear…” article referenced in the text was indeed “below” on the http://spaceweather.com/ site, and noted that the stratosphere has been clear of volcanic particles since 1996, and that this in itself has contributed ca 0.2 C to “recent warming”….
Now I’m thankful that it’s only -15.6 C outside, rather than -15.8. 🙂
Happy New Year!
I made this image from my backyard at 3:41am EST with one of my telescopes. We had one of the clearest nights in memory.
Jose
http://www.josesuroeditorial.com/Landscapes/Scenics-2010/10935498_LwBYL#1133568172_TTuRc-O-LB
In Sacramento we had the cloud cover for most of the evening, then a strange thing happened. The clouds dissipated to reveal a partial eclipse. Seemed miraculous to me. The cloud kept retreating all the way through to totality leaving the sky crystal clear. Then just as the first sliver of the returning light started to show on the moon, the cloud slowly coalesced until it covered the sky.
The clouds departure and return seemed to be orchestrated by the eclipse. Makes me wonder if there might be a connection or mechanism.
Your spaceweather.com link at the top does not work. — John M Reynolds