OT - Watched the lunar eclipse...

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:45 pm

... a couple hours ago. Not bad. Interesting - but not exciting. Still, it will be the last full one in North America for a couple years.

I'm a science geek - always have been, always will be!

lever-4-life · Post by **lever-4-life** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:53 pm

I made the family go out and look at it, but I think they did it to humor me

Im glad Im not the only one who likes these type things

Post by **Chuck 100 yd** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:07 am

Looks just like it did when I was drinking.

Kinda dark and fuzzy!

mescalero1 · Post by **mescalero1** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:43 am

Cloudy & raining in Phoenix ( can you believe it? )
could not see it

JReed · Post by **JReed** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:04 am

Cloudy here to

missed it.

meanc · Post by **meanc** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:26 am

It was nice and clear here in Florida.

Made everyone go outside and watch it from beginning to full.

It wasn't exciting, but it was good family together time.

homefront · Post by **homefront** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:45 am

Saw it over the pines, behind the house. Cold, clear night, with all the stars in view. The wife and I stood shivering, and wished my son was there to see it. That diminished it's beauty for me.

Noah Zark · Post by **Noah Zark** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:52 am

Was pretty cool, kinda like watching the phases of the moon compressed from 28 days to one hour, up until just before the full eclipse when the #%$*&@#$^! clouds obscured it. Figures.

Noah

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:24 am

i watched it and tried to get pictures but couldnt find the mount for my tripod. best I could do bracing the camera:

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dr walker · Post by **dr walker** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:16 am

My wife and daughter watched the eclipse with me I brought my spotting scope and binoculars. The wife only watched for 15 minutes or so, but my daughter stayed out for 2 hours with me. She thought it would be a good idea to go watch the sky with binoculars more often. There was about 30-45 minutes where she just layed on her back looking with the binoc's straight up in the sky. The sky was clear the weather about perfect.

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:33 pm

Last time we had one I was reading "Panther in the Sky" by James Thom - a historical novel about the life of Tecumseh and his crazy prophet brother. An eclipse (solar) around 250 years ago was one of perhaps many that may have influenced the course of history.

For history buffs, Thom's novels are all based on real people and meticulously researched, but the 'novel' part (i.e. day to day goings on and conversation) flesh out what would otherwise be dry reading. I highly recommend ALL his books spanning the 1700 to Civil War era.

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:25 pm

Mike -

The bright "star" to the lower left of the moon is actually the planet Saturn. It was not visible during the full moon, since the moon is so bright, but was visible during the eclipse.

I celebrated my 20th anniversary with the company I work for last month. Every 5 years they give you a "service award". They went to a on-line catalog that allows you to pick the award - with the awards getting nicer each 5 years.

I didn't see anything that struck my fancy (no leverguns

), then spied a nice telescope - a Bushnell "North Star". It arrived Tuesday afternoon, I put it together yesterday, and the eclipse was the first thing I checked out! I then took a look at Saturn and could clearly see the rings.

Very cool!!!

Idahoser · Post by **Idahoser** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 3:49 pm

Cloudy here, but I've seen them before. I too try to spread the word when there's a celestial event-- I pointed out Hale-Bopp looking up the mountain at Bogus Basin ski resort going up the lift; the vapor trail of the shuttle re-entry time before last; planets, meteor showers... stuff like that.

People seem generally to be moderately interested and not 'hostile' to the idea of learning something as I expect most of the time. I try anyway and I've been rewarded more than not.

Still, there are distressingly too many people that buy "THE PLANET MARS WILL SUDDENLY APPEAR TO BE THE SIZE OF THE FULL MOON!" and astrology and politics...