Natural History Wanderings

Updated 12/10/11

If  you missed the eclipse or want to see photos and video go to:  Links to Photos and Video of the Eclipse

If you can’t get to a good viewing point for the eclipse go to Wired Science’s Watch a Live Feed of Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse starting at 5:00 am PST.

There will be a total lunar eclipse on December 10, 2011.   The eclipse begins at 4:45 am Pacific Standard Time. The total phase of the eclipse will last for 51 minutes and will occur when the Moon’s orbit takes it through the southern half of the earth’s darkest shadow. For more information go to NASA: Total Eclipse of Moon  (article)

The total eclipse will be visible in the western part of the U.S. and Europe. The eastern U.S. will only see a partial eclipse. Check 
Map of Total Lunar Eclipse of December 10 

To see a video of about the luna eclipse by Science@NASA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKtNgD45OB4

If interested in photographing the eclipse, check out this post by Michael Frey on tips for photographing an eclipse: http://www.michaelfrye.com/landscape-photography-blog/2011/12/05/lunar-eclipse-this-saturday/

If you want to know the time and where to look an eclipse at near you go to
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/lunar-ecl-\
us and type in your location.

Here are the results for Berkeley, CA  Total Eclipse of the Moon

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
W122 16, N37 52
Pacific Standard Time

                                                         h  m      Azimuth Altitude
Moonrise                         2011 Dec 09  16:18          61.2     —-
Moon enters penumbra     2011 Dec 10  03:31.8       267.7     40.9
Moon enters umbra          2011 Dec 10  04:45.4       278.2     26.8
Moon enters totality         2011 Dec 10  06:05.7       288.8     11.9
Middle of eclipse              2011 Dec 10  06:31.8       292.4      7.3
Moon leaves totality         2011 Dec 10  06:58.0       296.1      2.8
Moonset                          2011 Dec 10  07:18         299.0     —-

Curious About Astronomy? Ask An Astronmer  http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/index.php  run by volunteers in the Astronomy Department at Cornell University. Explains Azimuth and Altitude.

Azimuth represents the cardinal direction in which the object (in this case, the sun) can be found. It varies between 0 and 360 degrees. 0 degrees would be north, 90 east, 180 south, and 270 west.

Once you know in which direction the object is located, you need to know how high in the sky to look for it. That’s where Altitude comes in. Altitude ranges from 0 to 90 degrees, and measures the angle between the horizon, you, and the object. An object with 0 degrees altitude is right on the horizon, while an object at 90 degrees altitude is directly overhead. If you stretch out your arm and make a fist, then your fist covers about 10 degrees on your field of vision, so if the sun is at 40 degrees altitude, it is about 4 outstretched fists above the horizon.

Occasionally, you will see altitudes less than zero, e.g. “At 9:30 PM, the sun will be at -20 degrees altitude.” In this case, the sun would be 20 degrees below the horizon, you would be unable to see it, and it would be night time.