Beaver moon eclipse on Thursday night

[skychaser]

"The longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years will grace the night sky late Thursday night and early Friday across the entire country, weather permitting. According to NASA, the eclipse will last three hours and 28 minutes, the longest partial eclipse of this century and the longest in 580 years. For East Coast observers, the partial eclipse begins a little after 2 a.m. Friday and reaches its maximum at 4 in the morning. For observers on the West Coast, it begins just after 11 p.m. Thursday and reaches a maximum at 1 a.m. Friday. And you don't need any special glasses to see it, unlike during a solar eclipse. All you need is to wake up and get out there, with a coat to keep warm for the chilly November night

At maximum eclipse, the moon's face will be 97% covered by the deepest part of the Earth's shadow and will probably turn a deep red, Indiana's Holcomb Observatory said. That leaves behind only a silvery sliver of the moon’s southern edge peeking out, according to the American Astronomical Society.

November's full moon is traditional known as the Beaver Moon, Space.com said, because beavers are preparing for winter, so this month's sky show is known as the Beaver Moon eclipse."

Lunar eclipses are one of my favorite things to watch and photograph. Unfortunately it's not likely I will get to see this one. Our first snow of the season is in the forecast for Thursday night. 17f here this am. brrrr.. 73f indoors thanks to my big wood stove. I'll probably be watching the flickering fire light and snow flakes falling outside instead.

 

[deluxestogie]

Let's see....I get out of bed at 2 a.m. on Friday, with bleary, red eyes. I get dressed again, bundle up, and stumble out into the cold (a balmy 36°F, with 14 mph winds). I will get to see a reddish moon for 2 hours. Predicted cloud cover for me is a mere 20%. I could drag out my 15° North Face sleeping bag, and cocoon myself in a lawn chair, but be unable to light a cigar, or snap a photo.

Plan B: Naturally awaken as usual at about 2:30 a.m. to pee, then peek out through the Venetian blinds above the foot of my bed, and be able to say with a clear conscience that, yes indeed, I got up and saw the near-total partial eclipse of the 2021 Beaver moon.

Bob

 

[skychaser]

lol Plan C. Open the Venetian blinds and watch from there.

Dragging my self out of bed in the middle of the night to watch eclipses or to look for aurora has gotten to be the hardest part for me now that I am firmly into my geezerhood years. About 20 years ago there was a total lunar eclipse that began just as the moon rose. It was late May, the weather was warm and it was a beautiful spring night. A friend of mine and I had several cameras and telescopes set up to watch and photograph it. It looked like the press core was set up in my yard. The moon turned a deep orange and finally to a blood red. It was the best lunar eclipse either of us have ever seen. Maybe I'll just look at some photos of that one and do some reminiscing.

 

[deluxestogie]

Back in 1440, when I watched the longest lunar eclipse, Venetian blinds were still over 200 years in the future. Besides, the only window faced southeast. But I was young, and didn't mind going outside in the middle of the night to look at it. My heavy, woolen cape reached the ground, since it had been my grandfather's. The door of our thatch-roofed house faced southwest, so all I had to do was step out the door, and close it behind me. The house blocked the prevailing wind. [I went outside, only because I had to pee.] Unfortunately, by morning, everybody in the village was talking about the end of the world.

Bob

 

[Snowblithe]

This morning the moon looked like an oblate jack-o-lantern right on the western horizon in Calgary.

 

[deluxestogie]

I can proudly say that I did get up, get dressed again and go outside last night. But that was around 11:45 pm, shortly after I had completely undressed to go to bed. It was only upon retiring for the night that I noticed that my phone (in its belt-clip pouch) was not attached to my leather belt. After searching every nook and cranny inside my house, in house slippers and minimal garments, I resigned myself to going outside to retrace my afternoon journey to the mailbox. It had lightly drizzled in the early evening.

So now, fully dressed, with flashlight dangling from my neck, I began the remarkably tedious task of visually scanning the blanket of fallen maple leaves that covered my gravel driveway, by tangentially illuminating the glistening, multi-colors for any sign of a small, black phone pouch. The temp was about 33°F, and the wind was gusting. Half-way down the driveway, right in the center of a tire track, I spotted my little black sheep.

On returning to the house, I gingerly opened the damp pouch, and extracted the flip phone. It appeared to have not been exposed to any liquid. I turned off the power, and left it open until morning.

Spoiler

It works fine today.

Oh yeah. I awakened at both 2:30 am and 4:00 am to peek at the Beaver Blood Moon Partial Near-total Lunar Eclipse through my Venetian blinds. No getting dressed on these two occasions. Since I did not view it near its near-total, there was no pink or blood or ominous mystery. Just a partial eclipse. A mere shadow of the media hype. The "end of the world" discussion was conducted a priori in Glasgow.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Epilog: A FedEx truck drove down my driveway this morning, to deliver a box.

Bob

 

[skychaser]

It was snowing here. Snow / rain mix this morning. One of those sloppy wet dreary days that are to typical here in winter. Spaceweather.com has some nice photos of what I didn't see. Really nice one from Georgia.

 

[skychaser]

Epilog: A FedEx truck drove down my driveway this morning, to deliver a box.

Bob

Good thing you went out looking for it last night or it would be a flat phone now. I had a phone for 6 years. Never used it and got tired of paying the bill, so it went bye bye. Land line only now and no regrets. Those things are like crack to some people. They just can't put them down!

 

[deluxestogie]

Although I have 3 people who call me on rare occasions, my flip phone is mostly a body-worn, emergency button.

Bob

 

[Oldfella]

I can proudly say that I did get up, get dressed again and go outside last night. But that was around 11:45 pm, shortly after I had completely undressed to go to bed. It was only upon retiring for the night that I noticed that my phone (in its belt-clip pouch) was not attached to my leather belt. After searching every nook and cranny inside my house, in house slippers and minimal garments, I resigned myself to going outside to retrace my afternoon journey to the mailbox. It had lightly drizzled in the early evening.

So now, fully dressed, with flashlight dangling from my neck, I began the remarkably tedious task of visually scanning the blanket of fallen maple leaves that covered my gravel driveway, by tangentially illuminating the glistening, multi-colors for any sign of a small, black phone pouch. The temp was about 33°F, and the wind was gusting. Half-way down the driveway, right in the center of a tire track, I spotted my little black sheep.

On returning to the house, I gingerly opened the damp pouch, and extracted the flip phone. It appeared to have not been exposed to any liquid. I turned off the power, and left it open until morning.

Spoiler

It works fine today.

Oh yeah. I awakened at both 2:30 am and 4:00 am to peek at the Beaver Blood Moon Partial Near-total Lunar Eclipse through my Venetian blinds. No getting dressed on these two occasions. Since I did not view it near its near-total, there was no pink or blood or ominous mystery. Just a partial eclipse. A mere shadow of the media hype. The "end of the world" discussion was conducted a priori in Glasgow.

Bob

Beaver/Blood Moon,
I was waiting with baited breath for this wondrous occasion. The light was fading and the moon started rising. A little later I looked again and behold there was a 3/4 moon. As I watched the high cloud rolled in and the whole thing turned fuzzy. Although you could still see the Moon it was not worth the effort of watching, so I stayed where I was.
I guess that I'll just have to wait another 800yrs and watch again, maybe I'll have to come back as a tortoise. Nah maybe not, it'll just be Cloudy again. It's sort of annoying as the night before last the view was perfect.
The only advantage I had was that I didn't have to get out of bed to see. I could see out of my bedroom window if I wanted to as I never bother to shut the curtains.
Oldfella

 

[Davo]

We had clear skies here in Tauranga. Was pretty cool to watch, and the 8pm start was rather convenient this time.