Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Y'all Don't Forget!
Those of you lucky enough to have clear skies will be treated to a spectacular total Lunar eclipse on the evening of February 20 - 21. For us in North America, the eclipse is smack in the middle of Wednesday evening, with the event winding up early enough to make going to work the next morning not too painful. Want all the details? Check out Sky & Telescope's in-depth coverage.I was excited about this one, since this will be the first decent eclipse of the Moon to hit my neck of the woods in a while. I was running around yesterday evening gatherin' up cameras, mounts, scopes, etc. Even the weather looked like it would cooperate for once, I thought. That's what I get for thinking; a look at wunderground.com this morning shows we down here in the Great Possum Swamp are likely to be skunked. Totally skunked. You never do know, but I ain't optimistic. Maybe I'll get a look or two at Hecate through a pair of binocs if I'm lucky. So it goes...
Update: looked like a nice, if not overly dark eclipse from what I could see of it. As predicted, the clouds moved in right on schedule. I did station a pair of 15x70 binocs in Chaos Manor South's front hall, and between sips of...err..."sarsaparilla," I made frequent expeditions to the front porch to check eclipse progress. Luna was always obscured by at least a thin layer of haze, but I'm sure those of y'all whom the weather gods smiled upon had a good night. Certainly the shots I've seen; especially one from Jerry Lodriguss, look impressive. Me? 'Bout mid totality we was socked in for good, and I headed inside for more Yell and to finish watching a recent addition to the Chaos Manor South DVD library, Invasion of the Both Snatchers. The 50s edition, not the ersatz stuff.
