TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE INFO BELOW
February 12, 2007: Picture this: The year is 2025 and you're on the moon. "Home" is 100 meters away—an outpost on the rim of Shackleton Crater. NASA started building it five years earlier, and it is growing fast. You're one of the construction workers.
As always in these polar regions, the sun hangs low, barely above the craggy lunar horizon. You adjust your visor. It amazes you how bright a low sun can be when there's no atmosphere to dim it.
see captionSuddenly, the lights go out.
Up in the sky, a big black disk covers the sun. A red "ring of fire" appears where the sun was only moments before, and its glow turns the ground red beneath your feet.
You've been waiting for this. It's an eclipse.
Right: On the moon, the ground turns red during a lunar eclipse. This photo was taken by Doug Murray of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, during the total lunar eclipse of Oct. 27, 2004. [More]
Astronauts on the moon are going to experience eclipses typically once or twice a year: Earth glides in front of the sun turning lunar day into a strange kind of ruddy night. It'll be one of the highlights of any lunar tour.
The charm of the eclipse comes from Earth. Our planet is big enough by a factor of three to block the entire sun but, curiously, this doesn't cause complete darkness. Rays of sunlight bend around the edge of Earth, filtering through the atmosphere. As seen from the moon, the edge of Earth lights up like a sunset-red ring of fire—one of the most beautiful sights in the solar system. (A simplified, 1.2 MB animation of the process may be seen here. Credit: Graphic artist Larry Koehn.)
Can't wait until 2025? The next eclipse is right around the corner: Saturday, March 3, 2007. Stuck on Earth, we can't see the ring of fire, but we can see the red glow it produces on the moon. The phenomenon will be visible from parts of all seven continents including the eastern half of North America.
see caption
Above: A visibility map of the March 3, 2007, total lunar eclipse. Credit: Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC. [More]
In the USA, the eclipse will already be underway when the moon rises on Saturday evening. Observing tip: Find a place with a clear view of the eastern horizon and station yourself there at sunset. As the sun goes down behind you, a red moon will rise before your eyes.
Rising moons are often reddened by clouds or pollution, but this moon will be the deep, extraordinary red only seen during a lunar eclipse. As you watch it ascend into the night, imagine what it would be like to stand by Shackleton Crater watching from the opposite direction.
It's not so far-fetched. NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon no later than 2020. From their polar base camp, humans will explore the countryside hunting for resources they can use to "live off the land." They'll study the moon's geology, learning more about the unique potential of the moon to reveal ancient secrets of Earth and the solar system. They'll also evaluate technologies needed for future missions to Mars.
And occasionally when the ground turns red, they'll pause and look up at a glowing ring in the sky.
March 3rd is a good night to imagine that.
2007-03-03 11:00:15
·
answer #1
·
answered by slugbug 2
·
0⤊
0⤋
For Lunar Eclipses the Moon is going into the Earth's Shadow that's 4 or 5 situations larger or extra advantageous than the moon. consequently totality can final as long as almost 2 hours if it is going real interior the process the midsection. If that's on the sting that's as short as a couple of minutes. Now on the photograph voltaic Eclipse the MOON is in simple terms a HAIR larger in obvious length from the solar. So totality never lasts extra advantageous than 2 minutes and the completed eclipse is two hours or much less. while the Moon and solar are in comparable length Totality can final as low as 10 seconds. while the Moon is smaller, you notice a hoop referred to as an Annular eclipse. that's brought about with the help of the Moon being in a quite pear formed strange orbit (no longer a suitable Circle) so each and every each and every now and then the Moon is closer to the Earth than that's at different situations. This impacts the plain length of the moon quite. Totality on a Lunar eclipse is a band hundreds of miles extensive, totality on a photograph voltaic eclipse is a band 2 or 5 miles extensive.
2016-10-02 08:18:01
·
answer #2
·
answered by ? 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
The lunar eclipse will happen tonight March 3, 2007:
Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 3:18 PM
Partial Eclipse Begins: 4:30 PM
Total Eclipse Begins: 5:44 PM
Greatest Eclipse: 6:21 PM
Total Eclipse Ends: 6:57 PM
Partial Eclipse Ends: 8:11 PM
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 9:23 PM
2007-03-03 11:05:31
·
answer #3
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
It is/was tonight. The best viewing should be from about 5:15 until 6:58pm EST. Also, the best view places will be Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Alaska will miss it entierly. :-)
2007-03-03 11:09:13
·
answer #4
·
answered by puppyraiser8 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
im not sure, but someone should also write what time
2007-03-03 11:03:36
·
answer #5
·
answered by Jdez 4
·
0⤊
0⤋