Lunar eclipse March 3rd
Feb 28th, 2007 by Dan
When I was a kid, I had a book called “Science Made Stupid,” which described eclipses thusly: An eclipse of the moon is when the earth passes between the sun and the moon. An eclipse of the sun is when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. And an eclipse of the earth is when you put your hand over your eyes.
According to NASA’s Eclipse website, there will be a total lunar eclipse this Saturday March 3rd at 23:20:56 UT, or 6:20pm EST, 3:20pm PST. Lucky you if you happen to be in Africa.
Eclipses are cool. My brother’s father in-law has been an “eclipse hunter” for years, and I was fortunate to join his family and my parents on a trip to Turkey a year ago to view the total solar elipse there. It was incredible- I highly reccomend the experience to anyone and everyone. The photo here was taken by my dad at 2:00pm on a bright sunny day during totality. For only a few minutes, the sky darkened and the horizon became this incredible 360 degree sunset. The temperature dropped maybe 15 degrees, and the birds stopped chirping- other than “ooh’s” and “aahs”, it was silent. Truly an incredible experience.
So when’s the next one? Lunar eclipses happen frequently, so check with NASA. The next solar eclipses are nicely documented here on a site with some integrated Google Maps.
