12/21/2010 Solstice, Full Moon, Total Lunar Eclipse

[shyfrog]

12/21/2010 Solstice, Full Moon, Total Lunar Eclipse

Yup, there will be parties. I don't know where yet, but they will be happening. 

[John]

Thanks for the heads up.
How many eclipses have people here seen? My favorite was on the beach at Bar Harbor, Maine.


BTW Lou, Your quote reminds me that I was recently intending to listen to some Cat Stevens, didn't get around to it, and then it slipped my mind ... Thanks for the reminder.

[MaineShark]

A solstice eclipse is pretty rare.  Especially a total eclipse.

FYI, though, "lunar eclipse" and "full moon" always go together; you can't have a lunar eclipse of anything other than a full moon.

Joe

[John]

Isn't the moon almost always partially eclipsed? 

[MaineShark]

Isn't the moon almost always partially eclipsed? 

Nope.  There are usually two eclipses per year.  Some years (2002 was the most recent, IIRC) had no full or even partial lunar eclipses.

If you include penumbral eclipses, where the moon is dimmed, but not actually fully in the earth's shadow, there can be up to five per year, hypothetically, although that combination is fairly rare.

Of course, then you have to figure that half the planet is seeing day, so the chances that your location will be able to see any given eclipse are cut down as a result.

Joe

[John]

Isn't the moon almost always partially eclipsed? 

Whenever we see the moon and it is not completely full, is it not partially eclipsed?

[Jim Johnson]

Isn't the moon almost always partially eclipsed? 

Whenever we see the moon and it is not completely full, is it not partially eclipsed?

If you mean that the side of the moon that is facing the sun is blocking the sun from shining the side that is facing away from the sun... but that's not what is meant by being eclipsed.

[John]

Thanks. Yes, it cannot and does not eclipse itself - at all - ever. That is not an eclipse  - never was and never is - and therefore it is not called an eclipse. Not even sometimes. Except by people who are thinking the wrong way.
Never mind.

[Kat Kanning]

You're being passive aggressive again, John.

[John]

You're being passive aggressive again, John.

I didn't think there was anything passive about it.
I though it was an aggressive self-flagellation. And a well deserved one at that!

[John]

 

[shyfrog]

An eclipse of a full moon is just censorship by powerful forces already set in motion...

[Pat K]

[KBCraig]

Turn around, bright eyes.