Rare ‘tetrad’ of total lunar eclipses begins next week

[oneh2obabe]

In the wee hours of the morning on April 15 the sun, Earth and moon will be in 'syzygy', lined up perfectly so that the full moon will pass through the centre of Earth's shadow, producing a total lunar eclipse that will be visible throughout North America and South America. The last time this part of the world saw a total lunar eclipse was back in December of 2011, but what's even more special about this one is that it marks the beginning of a 'tetrad' — four total lunar eclipses in a row, each separated by a period of roughly six months.



For anyone living in Canada or the continental United States, if you don't want to miss any of it, the eclipse starts at 12:55 a.m. ET and ends at 6:38 a.m. ET, on the morning of April 15 (no guarantees that the weather will cooperate, though). That's from the point where the moon enters Earth's penumbra — the defuse outer 'ring' of the planet's shadow — to the point where it leaves the penumbra. However, from the start up until just before 2 a.m., there won't be too much to see except a slight dimming of the moon's brightness. If you really want to see the good part, be sure to be watching starting at just before 2 a.m until after 5:30 a.m., since that's when the moon will pass through the Earth's umbra — the darkest part of its shadow — and it will reach the peak of the eclipse ('totality') around 3:47 a.m. Eastern Time.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekqui ... 39789.html

[maryjane48]

got my camera charged lol

[grammafreddy]

We're also going to have Mars and Saturn in the same sky with the moon according to Stellarium.

http://www.stellarium.org/ and it's FREE!

[grammafreddy]

Oh - how lucky are you in Kelowna ... wish I was there for this!

http://www.castanet.net/news/Central-Ok ... se-eclipse

Members of the Okanagan Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) will host a public lunar eclipse viewing on the parking lot of the Kelowna Curling Club beginning at 10 p.m.

[Woodenhead]

Nice. I'm always up all night anyway. (I may even be sober for it, but I can't make any promises)

[Glacier]

The Jews have been watching this one for years now. The reason being that entire tetrad of blood moons occur on festival days. There are only 3 Festivals in the Jewish Calendar - The festival of matzahs (Passover), festival of Shavuot (reaping festival), and the festival of Sukkot (harvest festival).

The next 4 total eclipses fall on Passover and Sukkot & Passover and Sukkot. In the past 500 years this has only happened two other times. The first was in 1949/50 immediately after the national of Israel was established, and the last time was in 1967/68 just after the 6 days war in which Israel re-captured Jerusalem. What this Tetrad means is anyone's guess.

__________________________________________________
Then I saw the lamb open the sixth seal. There was a powerful earthquake. The sun turned as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon turned as red as blood. ~ Revelation 6:12

[Glacier]

Just checked the moon and the sky. Clear as a bell, but then I just check the satellite map, and it looks like the clouds will be here within an hours. NOOOOOooooo...

[unclemarty]

Catch all the live-stream action :

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/ ... -2014.html

or:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

[Woodenhead]

It's cloudy. :(

[Lady tehMa]

The Jews have been watching this one for years now. The reason being that entire tetrad of blood moons occur on festival days. There are only 3 Festivals in the Jewish Calendar - The festival of matzahs (Passover), festival of Shavuot (reaping festival), and the festival of Sukkot (harvest festival).

The next 4 total eclipses fall on Passover and Sukkot & Passover and Sukkot. In the past 500 years this has only happened two other times. The first was in 1949/50 immediately after the national of Israel was established, and the last time was in 1967/68 just after the 6 days war in which Israel re-captured Jerusalem. What this Tetrad means is anyone's guess.

__________________________________________________
Then I saw the lamb open the sixth seal. There was a powerful earthquake. The sun turned as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon turned as red as blood. ~ Revelation 6:12

Hmmm - guess we'll watch and see.

Instant replay for those of us with cloud cover (isn't this always the case when we want to stargaze???) http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/84016433/