Just another dimension?

Friday, February 16, 2007
When the Sun turns Black and the Moon turns Red -vwv vww

Eclipses. The only time when the Sun is black, kind of, and the Moon is red. In anticipation of the Total Lunar Eclipse of 4th March 2007 (3rd March for North America), I was discussing eclipses with Shuquan when he suggested we go eclipse-chasing in China for the Total Solar Eclipse of 2009. So I searched the web and found these two interesting maps of solar eclipses from 2001 to 2025.

The blue regions are areas that can see the total solar eclipses while the red regions are regions that see the annular solar eclipses. Annular solar eclipses occur when the Moon moves in front of the Sun, but is too small to cover the entire disc. So if you happen to be looking at the Sun, you see a ring of very very bright light. Otherwise, you won't really notice anything. Personally, I think total solar eclipses are more exciting. In this case, the Moon covers the entire Sun disc. Day turns into night instantly, stars appear, temperature drops and supposedly animals become nervous and dogs bark like crazy. This is what I'd like to see in 2009 when I go to China.

By the way, if you are wondering why we don't see solar eclipses very often, notice that most of the regions are over the oceans, so it's just too bad. Besides, not everyone is rich enough to go chase after every eclipse.

In the meantime, I am really looking forward to the total lunar eclipse on the morning of 4th March. For the past few lunar eclipses that I have seen, the Moon just turned black, being in Earth's shadow. But sometimes, long wavelength light (basically red light) gets bent in Earth's atmosphere and manage to reach the Moon during the eclipse. That when you get a red Moon, which is what I'm hoping for in March.

If you are interested, here are the details. There's another one in August if you miss the one in March. Time given is Singapore local time. For the benefit of those who didn't know, the Moon rises in the east and sets in the west.

Total Lunar Eclipse, 4 March 2007

Circumstances of the eclipse
Moon entering penumbra 0416 h
Moon entering umbra 0530 h
Middle of eclipse 0721 h
Moon Set 0759 h

Total Lunar Eclipse, 28 August 2007

Circumstances of the eclipse
Beginning of eclipse 1552 h
Middle of eclipse 1837 h
Moon rise 1914 h
Moon leaving umbra 1923 h
Moon leaving penumbra 2024 h
End of eclipse 2123 h

-- permalink --
Yiheng made 11:13 AM

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