Total Lunar Eclipse

Have you heard about tonight's total lunar eclipse? According to National Geographic, "A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, Earth, and the sun all line up, with Earth in the middle. During the eclipse, Earth's shadow is cast onto the full moon, dimming—but not completely obscuring—its surface." Apparently, this is the first time since 1638 that a total lunar eclipse of a full moon coincides with the winter solstice (as a result, the moon will feature quite prominently in the night sky in the northern hemisphere, from 9:55pm to 2:01 am PST).

Too bad the probability of my seeing anything of interest will be next to nil considering California has been afflicted with opaque, heavy grey clouds and seemingly endless bouts of rain over the past few days which show no signs of abating soon. It's comforting to know that I can always live vicariously through NASA, which will be hosting a live video feed of the lunar eclipse on their website. The giant astronomy nerd inside me sighs with relief.

{Image via here}

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

Today marks the first day of autumn. In Europe, that is. In the United States, autumn started yesterday. Confused? This link explains how the autumnal equinox can fall (pun intended, of course) on two separate dates:

The solstices and equinoxes are not actually days, but rather they are instants of time. The equinoxes are the instants when the Sun appears directly over Earth's equator....For 2010 the moment of the autumnal equinox is September 23 at 03:09 UTC (coordinated universal time). Coordinated universal time is also called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the standard time in the Greenwich, England time zone. Because this year's autumnal equinox falls so early in the morning in UTC, it is on the previous night in locations a few time zones west of Greenwich. In the United States, the autumnal equinox will be at 11:09 PM EDT, 10:09 PM CDT, 9:09 PM MDT, and 8:09 PM PDT on September 22. The autumnal equinox, or the first day of fall in the northern hemisphere, will be September 22, in the United States and locations further west. The September 2010 equinox will however be on September 23 in Greenwich, England, Europe, and more easterly locations.

And did you check out that beautifully brilliant moon in last night's sky? The tiny bright star next to it is actually Jupiter. Jupiter and the moon will be bosom buddies for the next month or so, but after that they won't rendezvous in the night sky until the year 2022. Start your sky gazing now.

{Image via here}