The Best Way To Watch the "Blood Moon" Tonight 146
An anonymous reader writes "People on the West Coast should be able to watch the beginning of the upcoming total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:20 pm. The entirety of the moon surface will be in Earth's shadow and start to glow red a couple hours later, a little after midnight. From the article: 'A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon, and Earth align so that Earth's shadow falls across the moon's surface. Monday night's lunar eclipse is a total eclipse, which means Earth's shadow will cover the moon completely. The moon won't be blacked out by our planet's shadow. Instead, it will take on a reddish hue — anywhere from a bright copper to the brownish red of dried blood.'"
What time zone is the 10:20 PM? (Score:5, Insightful)
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"People on the West Coast should be able to watch the beginning of the upcoming total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:20 pm." Implies either PST or PDT. I know that it begins at roughly 2 AM EDT.
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To watch the whole show from start to finish, your moon gazing should begin at 10:20 p.m. PDT
(FTA). OK, so maybe they should've included the information in the summary too. If it starts at 22:20 PDT, then it's starting at 01:20 EDT.
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"People on the West Coast should be able to watch the beginning of the upcoming total lunar eclipse tonight at 10:20 pm." Implies either PST or PDT.
Do you have any idea how many West Coasts there are?
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So American people now refer Tampa, FL as west coast??? The context for other than Americans may be ambiguous, but for most Americans, it should be understandable unless ...
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So American people now refer Tampa, FL as west coast??? The context for other than Americans may be ambiguous, but for most Americans, it should be understandable unless ...
It is ambiguous due to a lack of education. If there is confusion here, it is likely due to the fact that you happened to run into one of the 5% of Americans who paid attention in both English and Geography to understand what both "West" and "Coast" means. Within the context of a state like Florida populated with many large coastal cities, Tampa is in fact on the west coast.
If it is ambiguous in any other way, then it is due to the ignorant American who somehow passed Geography but refuses to acknowledge
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I have enough education to know that there hundreds of "west coasts" in the world. I also live in West Michigan, so I could easily interpret "west cost" to mean the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
However, I also have the skill of inference. Given that this is being posted on a U.S.-centric forum and the reference is being made in the context of a time of day, I was able to reason out that in this case, "west cost" does in fact refer to the Pacific timezone.
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I have enough education to know that there hundreds of "west coasts" in the world. I also live in West Michigan, so I could easily interpret "west cost" to mean the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
However, I also have the skill of inference. Given that this is being posted on a U.S.-centric forum and the reference is being made in the context of a time of day, I was able to reason out that in this case, "west cost" does in fact refer to the Pacific timezone.
As did I. As did plenty of other US-centric people who browse these forums between the hours of 0800 EST and 1700 PST.
The problem with that mentality is it is a rather ignorant one to hold onto as the world continues to be proven very flat. Websites have never claimed to know physical boundaries, and we're using time to refer to a celestial event. Last time I checked, the west coast of the United States does not own exclusive viewing rights to the solar system.
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Last time I checked, the west coast of the United States does not own exclusive viewing rights to the solar system.
Well, times have changed. If you want to look up, you'd better get packing.
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So American people now refer Tampa, FL as west coast?
In Florida, yes.
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So American people now refer Tampa, FL as west coast???
What do people in Orlando refer to it as? I've lived on a west coast in the US, and it wasn't PDT.
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So does Michigan.
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There's only one west coast, in the whole world? really?
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because if you go farther east you end up on the West Coast of the US which, we have already discussed, is West. so simple.
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For those who are too lazy and/or stupid to read the linked article...
"To watch the whole show from start to finish, your moon gazing should begin at 10:20 p.m. PDT, when the first faint shadow will start to fall on the moon."
10:20 p.m. PDT.......10:20 p.m. PDT....PDT....PDT....PDT....PDT......I'll translate that for you: PDT – Pacific Daylight Time
US states using PDT in the summer and PST during winter
California
Idaho - western counties; Benewa
Re:What time zone is the 10:20 PM? (Score:5, Informative)
The article makes it clear that it's PDT, but even without reading the article, the fact that the link is to the LA Times and the summary is talking about the "West Coast" should have been a good indication of the time zone in question.
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Oh. That's strange. I thought they were talking about the West Cost of Cornwall. To, the time zone is BST surely?!
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I recall watching CNN in some crap hotel somewhere where this was the only channel in a language I understood and they were talking about Middle East while consistently referring to west coast of Africa. I guess in ignorance US citizens do not occupy the first place alone - after living in many countries for years I concluded that only constant aspect of humans culture that is always clearly visible is that - ignorance.
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Taken out of context, as it was in the summary, I fully agree that "West Coast" is ambiguous, given the international readership of Slashdot. That's why I made a point of very intentionally establishing context first, by mentioning that it was an LA Times article. I then used an "and" to pair it with the "West Coast" term, indicating that I think you need both to satisfactorily determine the time zone in question, rather than just one or the other.
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Taken out of context, as it was in the summary, I fully agree that "West Coast" is ambiguous, given the international readership of Slashdot. That's why I made a point of very intentionally establishing context first, by mentioning that it was an LA Times article. I then used an "and" to pair it with the "West Coast" term, indicating that I think you need both to satisfactorily determine the time zone in question, rather than just one or the other.
FWIW, us NZers read 'West Coast' as the west coast of the South Island. Famous for
:)
1: Rain
2: The Hokitika wildfood festival
3: Weird people, known as 'coasters'
But like most other people on the boards, I switch to west coast USA for this. I'm a visitor, best to be on good behaviour when in someone else's house
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Oh, we understand that others are reading but that doesn't mean we have to change our ways to cater to your desires because you came here so you change to the local customs. Why is it that if I visit your country you will complain if I complain about it not being like the US but then you expect us in the US to change to meet your local customs? Hypocrite much?
Your complaining is like me reading the Guardian online and complaining about all the misspellings.
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No. Times for astronomical events are very often given in UTC, to avoid exactly the confusion which is occurring here. In any case, the time zone should always be specified to avoid ambiguity.
You're arguing against a straw man, I'm afraid, since we're largely on the same page, from what I can tell.
For instance, you're arguing that timezones should be specified, to which I completely agree. You've suggested as well that UTC should be used in cases such as these, and, once again, I strongly agree. Re-read my previous comment, and you should see that I provided no defense for the practice of omitting time zones.
Rather, what I did say was that I believed there were sufficient context clues available
Which direction? (Score:2)
I cannot seem to find which direction it is? North? East? West? South? I hope to see it from east of L.A. with its light pollutions. :(
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Look for it as the eclipse starts, it will be a full moon high overhead. You can't miss it (assuming that you can see the sky at all).
At the height of eclipse the moon turns dark reddish because the only thing illuminating it are all the world's sunsets and sunrises at once!
After the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in mid 1991 pushing more particulates and sulfur into the stratosphere than any eruption since Krakatoa, the following lunar eclipse on 9 December 1992 was so dark the moon completely
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Sky & Telescope provides this chart [skyandtelescope.com] that should answer your question.
Lucky sods--the moon will set here (Scandinavia) about 10 minutes before the eclipse begins. :P
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Re:Trembling in fear. (Score:5, Informative)
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."
- Mark 13:31-32
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Or it could be simple hubris. A lot of religious leaders seem to have trouble telling themselves and their deity apart.
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no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen,
So all I have to do is write a cron script:
...and the world will never end. Problem solved -- well THAT was easy [staples.com].
0 * * * * echo "I Predict The World Will End This Very Hour" | mail -s "IMPORTANT -- READ THIS NOW" Pope@Vatican.va God@Whitehouse.gov GodJr@Heaven.com
- Paul Cron:5 - Crontab:5 [linuxmanpages.com]
For my next act: Whirled Peas, anyone?
Really: the only thing that actually upsets me about the EotW [wikipedia.org] people are the idiots that actually want to help make it happen.
I'm going to have an excellent seat (Score:5, Interesting)
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And light has no mass! How does it bounce off mirrors? OMG!
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Just reverse the polarity of the inertial dampeners.
Trollolololol! (Score:5, Funny)
What annoys me is that this is happening on a weeknight. Seriously??? Can't anyone think this sort of thing through??? The majority of interested parties have either work or school the next day.
We need to petition to get these events to happen on weekends, so people can stay up late for them without severe disruption of their lives.
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It's just plain thoughtless and inconsiderate!
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if I could find an American lawyer who would actually take my case if I said I wanted to sue Accuweather .
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Tell me about it. I'm East Coast as well and I am trying to remember the last time we had good weather to see such an event.
I do remember we had good weather just long enough to see the transit of Mercury, but aside from that, I'm at a loss.
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We should probably sue both Accuweather and NASA just to cover our bases.
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Wait, which East Coast?
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What annoys me is that this is happening on a weeknight. Seriously??? Can't anyone think this sort of thing through??? ...
Very poor planning IMO. Whereas we had temps in the 80s a couple days ago it is presently 27F when the eclipse seems to be at totality. Oh well, at least I got to see it and capture some crude images before the clouds moved back in.
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Oh yeah? Well... I'm going to be ... listening to Pink Floyd.
So how will you see it from "the dark side of the moon"?
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Big Bang Theory quote time:
Zack: One question. How can you be sure it won't blow up?
Leonard: The laser?
Zack: The moon.
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Why is Netflix suddenly running so slow?
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So, does she shoot the laser off the hip Rambo-style, or does she wuss out and use a bipod?
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I'll be watching the eclipse from the catwalk of a 3.5 meter telescope while said telescope shoots a laser at the moon and bounces the beam off of five retroreflectors. Weather permitting. It's awesome having a wife who's an astronomer/PhD.
You know you're a geek when you read that and think, "Damn, he's lucky to be married to that!" - like how other guys react when they see a guy married to a woman who looks like a swimsuit model.
Now, if his astronomer wife also looks like a swimsuit model or at least has the figure of one, I will strangle myself with my mouse cord!
Fuck! It's Bluetooth!
I hate life!
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So to my fellow geeks: there is hope, and patience is sometimes rewarded.
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I am fortunate enough to be married to a woman who has master's degrees in mechanical and chemical engineering AND looks like a swimsuit model.
So eat your hea---er, well, okay, she doesn't do much cooking.
I guess you can't have everything. :D
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now that sounds really cool doing your own laser reflection but are you using facility scope? Have amateur astronomers done this before? Does it require a really powerful laser, i.e. the kind that guvmint doesn't want in hands of individuals?
Now you people commenting of they don't think this is possible, this is one of these reflectors wwphx is talking about, http://spie.org/Images/Graphic... [spie.org]
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Very nice indeed! But out of curiosity, what makes the eclipse an interesting moment to do this (which I suppose is intended for exact distance measurements), as opposed to say, any new moon? I don't mean this out of spite, it is really my curiosity kicking in, can you ask your wife what data is this intended to gather and to what end?
Not bad - sorry your scope is so small. ;) (Score:1)
I'm stuck spending the night at an 8.3-meter [naoj.org] with a bunch of people who're tinkering with something called "Visible Aperture Masking Polarimetric Interferometer for Resolving Exoplanetary Signatures” - VAMPIRES for short. Unfortunately, we're not lasering the moon, or doing spectroscopy of it during totality like we did last eclipse (you can measure elemental abundances and pollutants in Earth's atmosphere that way, nifty). But at least we're somewhere [hawaii.edu] that it all happens 2 hours earlier in the even
Stop calling it 'blood moon'! (Score:2, Insightful)
it's a f'in LUNAR ECLIPSE.
What is it with everyone suddenly having the need to give natural events cutsie, abstract, or dramatic names? Kinda like when the media started calling larger than average full moons Super Moons, or any cold spell in winter the 'polar vortex'.
Re:Stop calling it 'blood moon'! (Score:4, Informative)
Suddenly, it's been called a blood moon for quite some time...
Re:Stop calling it 'blood moon'! (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed it does originate from a long time ago. There's this quote from the bible, Joel 2:31 (Common English Bible):
" The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.".
Or it could also be a reference to the folklore name 'red moon'. Every full moon has a 'cutsie, abstract, or dramatic name' which predates modern astronomy.
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-... [earthsky.org]
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Blood moon, red moon, and dozens of various synonyms and such exist in almost every culture on earth since recorded history and likely long before. Like most rare celestial events it was a sign of great events about to happen (what the event was varied per culture).
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Rare events? Happens to my wife at least once a month!
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I suspect the reason that this one is getting so much publicity (it's not an uncommon event) is because there are several moderately popular books out about supposed biblical prophecies with that title. There's also a detective novel, a vampire novel and a werewolf novel with that name, and some others. Something about the name drew a lot of attention on Farcebook too.
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You'll have to get used to it.
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And it's not like they just made up a cutesy name that wasnt in use - a blood moon is an actual thing, but it's still many months in the future.
Marketing and advertising will never be satisfied until they destroy the language so completely that it can no longer be used to communicate at all.
Yeah, (Score:2)
A contender for "dumbest headline ever" (Score:4, Funny)
The Best Way To Watch the "Blood Moon" Tonight
...is with your eyes, at the appropriate time. Don't bother looking earlier; it won't have happened yet! Similarly, if you try to catch the eclipse after it's finished, you'll just see an ordinary full moon.
Get it? Got it? Good.
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The Best Way To Watch the "Blood Moon" Tonight
...is with your eyes, at the appropriate time. Don't bother looking earlier; it won't have happened yet! Similarly, if you try to catch the eclipse after it's finished, you'll just see an ordinary full moon.
Get it? Got it? Good.
That beats my response.
I was just going to say, "drunk."
Official Site (Score:1)
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2014.html#LE2014Apr15T [slashdot.org]
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So why is this such a big deal? (Score:1)
Total lunar eclipses are a common occurrence, and almost always have the "blood moon" look from red light refracting around the Earth.
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Depending on how deep in the Earth's shadow the effect can be more or less pronounced. I saw one eclipse where the moon was pretty close to black several years ago, apparently this one will be deeper in the Earth's shadow so will be lit up better.
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The best way to watch it? (Score:2)
"Blood Moon" (Score:1)
Please drop this idiotic phrase.
Besides, total lunar eclipses aren't red at all, at least, none I've ever seen. They're a neat copper colour.
...laura
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From Raven Rock in Solstheim (Score:2)
Where else would be more appropriate? A glance out the window, then back to the bears and spriggans.
Why a blood moon? (Score:1)
On top of a pyramid (Score:1)
Face it, if you can't do it right, you might as well not do it at all.
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Unless you're in San Francisco... (Score:1)
...in which case a Google Bus is going to appear out of nowhere and park between you and the moon, completely blocking your view.
The Best Way To View The Blood Moon (Score:2)
Is in TV, or YouTube, on a big LCD.
The out-of-doors is alright for some chaps. That's why we allow them to be game preserve wardens, and North Sea rig crews.
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Hey, somebody has to take pictures/video for the rest of us...
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Re:The Best Way To View The Blood Moon (Score:4, Funny)
How about you go outside, look around, and see if anyone is selling a sarcasm detector?