Lunar eclipse underway in Atlantic Canada

[Mike Baker]

Lunar eclipse underway in Atlantic Canada
Updated Sat. Mar. 3 2007 6:59 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The first lunar eclipse in more than two-and-a-half years is underway and all eyes are on the clear skies in Atlantic Canada.

Canadians on the East Coast will have the best view of the event, which began at 5:30 p.m. local time, but not as good as people in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Other prime spots include Africa, Europe and parts of Asia, but the lunar show will be visible from every continent -- a rarity for such an event.

Don Kelly, like many amateur astronomers in Atlantic Canada, has been preparing for the event and explains although we see the eclipse in slow motion; it's actually a high-speed phenomenon.

"I always like to watch the motion of objects in space. This is something three thousand kilometers in diameter moving four thousand miles per hour.  And that is awesome.  It's not something you want to step in front of, but great for viewing from a safe distance," Cameron told CTV Atlantic on Saturday.

Watching the celestial event is a tradition dating back thousands of years; one that helped ancient astronomers understand the planet better.

"Good things to watch for, just watch for the curvature of the Earth in there. A couple of thousand years ago, the philosophers noticed that, and were first to wonder whether the Earth was round, that maybe, we weren't on a flat planet," Curt Nason of the Saint John Astronomy Club told CTV Atlantic.

Unlike a solar eclipse, viewers will not have to worry about protecting their eyesight or enlisting the help of a telescope to view the eclipse.

One of the top spots for astronomy buffs in the Maritimes will be at Saint Mary's University's campus observatory.

"It's one of the top events of the year for those interested in astronomy,'' Dave Lane, an astronomy technician with the university, told The Canadian Press.

Total lunar eclipses are rare and only take place when the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth.

"One hundred per cent of eclipses are different, at least in some way," Peter McMahon, lead web producer for Discovery Channel Interactive, told CTV.ca on Friday.

Why the moon will look red

As the Earth blocks out all but a tiny portion of refracted light from the moon, a small amount of light will leak out into the Earth's atmosphere, causing the moon to appear as either a copper, orange or brown colour.

The more pollution or volcanic ash in the atmosphere, the deeper red the moon will seem.

"I believe it was in 1992 when volcanic ash rendered the moon almost invisible. There was a big black hole in sky and you couldn't even see the stars," said McMahon.

For those not inclined to wait in the cold, discoverychannel.ca will host a live interactive view of the eclipse from the Ontario Science Centre at 6 p.m. ET.

"Anyone west of Winnipeg likely won't be able to see the moon eclipse. Our webcast is especially useful for these people," McMahon said.

The Discovery Channel has positioned astronomers on top of the tallest building in Thunder Bay, Ont. to relay digital images back to their website as the moon rises.

"It's the next best thing to seeing it with your own eyes," McMahon said.

The moon's vanishing act is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. AT. For the rest of the country, the sky will not start to darken until the eclipse has already begun. This means provinces west of Quebec will get a limited viewing.

NASA recommends viewers position themselves with a clear view of the eastern horizon during sunset.

As the sun descends behind you, a brilliant coloured moon will rise into the sky.

The moon will reappear fully at approximately 9:11 p.m. AT.

Although those in the Atlantic provinces have the best spot for the eclipse, an impending snowstorm could cause disappointment for enthusiasts.

The president of the Royal Astronomical Society's Newfoundland branch is keeping his fingers crossed.

"I'm hoping they're wrong about the storm," Garry Dymond, who has his own observatory at his home in St. John's, told the Canadian Press.

"We spend so much time in front of computers and stuff like that, we lose contact with nature ... It's a nice chance to sit back and watch nature in action,'' he said.

If you do happen to miss the celestial event, another total lunar eclipse is predicted for late August. The best place to watch it will be on the West Coast of Canada.

With files from CTV Atlantic

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070302/lunar_eclipse_070302/20070303?hub=TopStories

Quick, all of us on the East Coast, look out.........NOW!

 

[Yrys]

OUPS!

I've send email to friends about it, to be sure they watch it if they feel like it,
but I've distracted myself with my first purchased on  ebay this evening  !

 

[eurowing]

Typical.... easterners...  in the dark... as usual.  ;D

sign me

jealous of your eclipse

 

[Mike Baker]

jealous of your eclipse

Yeah you better be too  ;D

 

[Yrys]

mmm, isn't that the solar system eclipse ?
I mean, the sun and the moon are in the solar system,
an eclipse can't be clamed has ''us'' by by nadians, only by
all solar system habitants...

OH!

Wait!

So you're living outside of the solar system?

( /shudder)

Is it far away    ?


Add : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6411991.stm (map of where the eclipse could be seen)

 

[warspite]

Ahhh nothing like a lunar eclipse to get the east coat back to their roots........​

​

Yup notin like a good ol pagan ceremony​

to bring back the moon​

Warspite cowers in fear​

 

[orange.paint]

Ha
I knew I had absolutely no reason to get "pickled" tonight..yet I did.
A eclipse you say....did i miss it...I'm Going outside.

It is still warm Ontario. >

 

[midget-boyd91]

Ha
I knew I had absolutely no reason to get "pickled" tonight..yet I did.
A eclipse you say....did i miss it...I'm Going outside.

Pickled without even sharing one beer with me... honestly man, thats just rude  ^-^

But yes, you missed it.  By the time it was dark enough to see it here, the moon was nearly completely covered. When it started getting higher in the sky I had this one strip of clouds in the clear sky that blocked out the moon, and ONLY the moon.

 

[xo31@711ret]

Well, up here on the north shore of Que, was looking forward to showing my 2 young daughters the eclipse, but some white stuff killed that!

-gerry

 

[PMedMoe]

"Canadians on the East Coast will have the best view of the event, which began at 5:30 p.m. local time, but not as good as people in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean."

Wow, those people in the middle of the Atlantic must be able to tread water for a long time!!!  :rofl:
Seriously, sorry I missed it.  :'(  I miss home!

 

[Yrys]

BBC News website readers speak of their experiences

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6416771.stm

 

[KwaiLo]

I am in Cambridge, ON.  I went out at 11:10PM last night to see if it was worht waking my kids up to see.  The moon was actualy whiter than I normally see, not red or brown at all.

I was disapointed, as were my kids when they woke me today.

 

[vonGarvin]

"Total lunar eclipses are rare and only take place when the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth."


I love it when the media get things wrong.  A SOLAR eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between the sun and the earth, not a lunar eclipse.  Why is this rare?  It's because the sun and the moon are not on the same plane.  Think about it.  The sun varies in it's relative position to the earth by 46 degrees over the year (23.5 degrees north of the equator at the Summer solstice and 23.5 degrees south of the equator at the winter solstice).  Why is that?  It is because the axis of the earth is tilted 23.5 from the plane of the earth to the sun.  The moon varies as well, by how much, I'm not certain.  The point is, the MSM got this one wrong, AGAIN.

Another point is this: the "myth" of a flat earth was not debunked due to lunar eclipses and philosphers gazing at the skies, but rather by everyday humans who looked out from their coast lines and noted that when ships sailed away, the last thing they saw were the tops of those ships: they quickly deduced that we were on a large sphere, and early Greek philosophers even calculated the size of the earth based on the variations of the lengths of shadows at different places at the same time on the same day.  It's a long theory, but in the end a simple application of trigonometry. 

Still, in Belleville Ontario last night I saw the tail end of the eclipse as I went outside at around 9 pm to have a cigarette.  The heavens are a thing of beauty, and most people don't realise that with the naked eye, one can easily see five planets: Mercury, Venus (which is out in the sky to the east as I type this), Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.