RSS feed for entries
 

 

This morning’s lunar eclipse

You know those “How to tell if you’re a redneck” lists? This morning it occurred to me that there’s a foolproof way to tell if you’re a geek: getting up at three a.m. to stare at the moon for a couple of hours because it’s a funny color.

Better than television, as far as I’m concerned. Way better. Pictures below the fold.

Totality. Without a telescope, nothing else in the sky ever actually looks like a sphere.

lunar eclipse, Aug. 28, 2007, totality

Earth’s shadow sliding away. Sunlight filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere makes that red color (just like sunset).

lunar eclipse, Aug. 28, 2007, partial

The fuzziness at the edge of Earth’s shadow is the atmosphere. Again, without a lot of special equipment, that’s the only time you’ll see a fuzzy anything in the whole night sky.

lunar eclipse, Aug. 28, 2007, earth's shadow