More on the Solar flare the other day. http://celestialdelights.info/sol/sunblast03.html
And those on the Atlantic side of the US will get a good view of the next Lunar Eclipse on Nov 8.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/04nov_lunareclipse2.htm
That’s really cool. I have never seen a lunar or solar eclipse in real life. I think it’s about time I saw one…that’s what I say every year 
yeah lunars are amazing. i wanna see this one. but i really wanna see a solar…really bad.
We had a really good solar eclipse here late last year. A must see if you havn’t seen one. Lunar eclipse’s are rare but it’s good to see the moon turn red or blue… Blues are extremely rare, Hence the saying once in a blue moon. (never seen one myself)
hey David
That saying comes from when we have 2 full moons within a calander month
No, Thats modern folk lore, although it is the most refered to explination of it.
On very rare occasions, however, the moon does appear to have a bluish hue. This occurs after a violent volcanic eruption or, occasionally, after a big forest fire. The particles in the smoke, or in the volcanic dust, can be of just the right size to scatter the light preferentially in the red so as to leave an excess of blue light in the Moon’s image. Coupled with a Lunar eclipse where the moon would usually turn red, it really takes on a definate bluish tint.
The last major blue moon was after all the oil was set alight in iraq at the end of the 1st gulf war…
So we were both right. 
[edit] phil, space.com has some really good articles, one of my favorite places to visit… [/edit]
Had a solar eclipse in south england about 3 years ago.
Kinda freeky sitting on a beach in the middle of the day with a laptop and webcam videoing a solar eclipse. Got a few people asking what I was doing. One guy had to think for a couple of seconds when I told him that I was using my laptop to blot out the sun.
They’re not the sharpest pencils in the box down south!
A really cool series of graphics and explanations about solar and lunar eclipses http://msnbc.com/news/978686.asp The inconstant moon link to the right of the large is a flash animation that animates the world of lunar eclipses…yay!
Figured all of you sun gazers would like to read this 
Yeah… it’s suppose to be viewable in my area almost perfectly… And it is suppose to be a clear night onight too…
Downside… It’s cold as **** here right now! lmao
it’s raining here, so we aint seein’ nuttin’ here boss…
Rev
No enthusiastic sky watcher ever misses a total eclipse of the moon. And the spectacle is often more beautiful and interesting than one would think. During the time that the moon is entering into and later emerging from out of Earth’s shadow, secondary phenomena may be overlooked. To help prepare for Saturday night’s eclipse, here is a chronology, including some of the things you might expect to see.
PROBABLY NOT all of the phenomena mentioned will occur because no two eclipses are exactly the same. But many will, and those who know what to look for have a better chance of seeing the special effects of the eclipse.
THE STAGES OF THE ECLIPSE
Moon enters penumbra (5:15 p.m. ET): Earth’s shadow cone has two parts: a dark, inner umbra, surrounding by a lighter penumbra. The penumbra is the pale outer portion of the Earth’s shadow.
Although the eclipse begins officially at this moment, this is in essence an academic event. You won’t see anything unusual happening to the moon — at least not just yet. Earth’s penumbral shadow is so faint that it remains invisible until the moon is deeply immersed in it. We must wait until the penumbra has reached roughly 70 percent across the moon’s disk. For about the next hour the full moon will continue to appear to shine normally, although with each passing minute it is progressing ever deeper into Earth’s outer shadow.
Penumbral shadow begins to appear (6:14 p.m. ET): Now the moon has progressed far enough into the penumbra so that it should be evident on the moon’s disk. Start looking for a very subtle light shading to appear on the moon’s left portion. This will become increasingly more evident as the minutes pass, the shading appearing to spread and deepen.
Just before the moon begins to enter the Earth’s dark umbral shadow the penumbra should appear as an obvious smudge or tarnishing of the moon’s left portion.
Moon enters umbra (6:33 p.m. ET): The moon now begins to cross into Earth’s dark central shadow, called the umbra. A small dark scallop begins to appear on the moon’s left-hand (eastern) limb. The partial phases of the eclipse begin; the pace quickens and the change is dramatic. The umbra is much darker than the penumbra and fairly sharp-edged.
As the minutes pass the dark shadow appears to slowly creep across the moon’s face. At first, the moon’s limb may seem to vanish completely inside of the umbra, but much later, as it moves in deeper, you’ll probably notice it glowing dimly orange, red or brown.
Notice also that the edge of Earth’s shadow projected on the moon is curved. Here is visible evidence that Earth is a sphere, as deduced by Aristotle from lunar eclipses he observed in the 4th century B.C. Almost as if a dimmer switch was slowly being turned down, the surrounding landscape on Earth and deep shadows of a brilliant moonlit night begin to fade away, at least for viewers away from bright lights.
75 percent coverage (7:43 p.m. ET): With three-quarters of the moon’s disk now eclipsed, that part of it that is immersed in shadow should begin to very faintly light up, similar to a piece of iron heated to the point where it just begins to glow.
It now becomes obvious that the umbral shadow does not involve complete darkness. Using binoculars or a telescope, its outer part is usually light enough to reveal lunar seas and craters, but the central part is much darker, and sometimes no surface features are recognizable. Colors in the umbra vary greatly from one eclipse to the next, Reds and grays usually predominate, but sometimes browns, blues and other tints are encountered.
Less than five minutes to totality (8:01 p.m. ET): Several minutes before (and after) totality, the contrast between the remaining pale-yellow sliver and the ruddy-brown coloration spread over the rest of the moon’s disk may produce a beautiful phenomenon known to some as the “Japanese Lantern Effect.”
Total eclipse begins (8:06 p.m. ET): When the last of the moon enters the umbra, the total eclipse begins. How the moon will appear during totality is not known. Some eclipses are such a dark gray-black that the moon nearly vanishes from view. At other eclipses it can glow a bright orange.
The reason the moon can be seen at all when totally eclipsed is that sunlight is scattered and refracted around the edge of Earth by our atmosphere. To an astronaut standing on the moon during totality, the sun would be hidden behind a dark Earth outlined by a brilliant red ring consisting of all the world’s sunrises and sunsets.
The brightness of this ring around Earth depends on global weather conditions and the amount of dust suspended in the air. A clear atmosphere on Earth means a bright lunar eclipse. If a major volcanic eruption has injected particles into the stratosphere during the previous couple of years, the eclipse is very dark.
No such eruption has happened since our last total lunar eclipse in May of this year, so the betting is that this eclipse will be bright.
Middle of totality (8:19 p.m. ET): The moon is now shining anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times fainter than it was just a couple of hours ago. Since the moon is moving well to the south of the center of Earth’s umbra, the gradation of color and brightness across the moon’s disk should be such that its upper portion should appear darkest, with hues of deep copper or chocolate brown. Meanwhile, its lower portion — that part of the moon closest to the outer edge of the umbra — should appear brightest, with hues of reds, oranges and even perhaps a soft bluish-white.
Observers away from bright city lights will notice a much greater number of stars than were visible before the eclipse began. The moon will be in the constellation of Aries the Ram, with the beautiful little Pleiades star cluster shining 15 degrees to the moon’s east (left). Your fist on an outstretched arm covers about 10 degrees of sky.
The darkness of the sky is impressive for those in the countryside. The surrounding landscape takes on a somber hue. Before the eclipse, the full moon looked flat and one-dimensional. During totality, however, it will look smaller and three-dimensional, like some weirdly illuminated ball suspended in space.
Before the moon entered Earth’s shadow, the temperature on its sunlit surface hovered at 266 degrees Fahrenheit (130 degrees Celsius). Since the moon lacks an atmosphere, there is no way that this heat can be retained from escaping into space as the shadow sweeps by. Now, in shadow, the temperature on the moon has dropped to minus 146 degrees Fahrenheit (99 degrees below zero Celsius). That’s a drop of 412 degrees Fahrenheit (229 degrees Celsius) in less than 90 minutes!
Total eclipse ends (8:31 p.m. ET): The emergence of the moon from the shadow begins. The first small segment of the moon begins to reappear, followed again for the next several minutes by the Japanese Lantern Effect.
75 percent coverage (8:55 p.m. ET ): Any vestiges of coloration within the umbra should be disappearing now. From here on, as the dark shadow methodically creeps off the moon’s disk it should appear black and featureless.
Moon leaves umbra (10:05 p.m. ET): The dark central shadow clears the moon’s right hand (western) limb.
Penumbra shadow fades away (10:24 p.m. ET): As the last, faint shading vanishes off the Moon’s right portion, the visual show comes to an end.
Moon leaves penumbra (11:22 p.m. ET): The eclipse “officially” ends, as it is completely free of the penumbral shadow.
Joe Rao — a veteran of eleven total lunar eclipses — serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
the moon, through clear skies is exactly 50% dark phrom the eclipse here in Ohio @ 7:23 EST
no meteors seen yet.
i’m gonna take a drive into the country away from the lights starting at 7:45…i’ll report back to kirupaville to give you my description of the events.
-my report may be biased, as i am under the influence of a mind altering substance.
The meteors might seem unusually brighter to me, i may lose track of the exact # of meteors viewed, and i might giggle at the sight of the eclipse. However, i’ll be on the scene.
88.57 % covered in Ohio Phil. Highly anticipating the full eclipse. Should be a massive ammount of energy on the earth.
*Originally posted by Sphynx *
**any other parts of the world of kirupaville want to add to this threads observations since this only happens once every 4 trillion years or so?
pj :P:P:P **
funny…
it will happen again in SF in 2 years…
:beam:
Rev
yeah, 7:05 iowa time it’s just barely a sliver, look at it through binoculars, pretty cool, i only wish i had a telescope
I see exactly what sphynx sees, when is the meteor shower?
yeah, a couple of minutes ago it was a lot brighter brown though, check out this link, doesn’t seem like it’s that rare…
hasn’t quite disappeared here yet
(7:27)
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