There’s a total eclipse of the moon tonight (Wednesday 20th)! NASA has a nice website on the timings, and some background information. Totality is at about 10:26pm EST, (see the NASA graphic to the right (click for larger)) but you should start watching before that to see the changes, which are always lovely to see. Naked eye is good, but if you have a pair of binoculars to help – even better!
Locally, if you’re interested you can join some of the Astronomy 100 students and TAs on the roof of parking structure A to view the eclipse. I spoke to Thad Szabo, and he said:
We should have 2 or 3 8″ scopes set up by 6:30pm, and we’ll be there until about 9pm, weather permitting. The eclipse peaks at 7:30pm PST. We should be on the south side of the roof. I’d encourage people to bring binoculars, if they have them.
If I know Thad, and if the weather holds, I bet he’ll have an excellent photo or two to share after the event. I’ll see if he will share one with us here.
[Update: There’ll be telescopes set up all over the front lawn of Griffith Observatory, with lots of astronomers on hand!]
-cvj
(Thanks Nick W.!)
Alas, I wasn’t able to get a picture in between making sure scopes were available for students and their friends. It was a really good group, though. Very interested, and very upbeat. It makes me look forward to our other observation sessions with that class!
Glad you got a good view. How do you keep informed about comets/eclipses/stuff anyway? Can one get alerts about them? I’m signed up for aurora alerts but I’m too far south really.
–IP
Quite lovely, thanks. Skies cleared up at the last minute and gave a good view over LA!
Sorry to hear it was cloudy for you.
-cvj
Thanks for keeping us informed of astronomical stuff. I set my alarm to get up and skygaze, but unfortunately it was totally overcast! Oh well. Maybe next time. Did you get a good view?
–IP