Tonight's full moon and lunar eclipse

[Charles Link]

Hello,
I don't see any other post about tonight's full moon and lunar eclipse, so I thought I would mention it.

 

[mfb]

Visibility map from Wikipedia. The main article has the times as well. In the US the eclipse is visible very early in the morning, in most of Europe it is not visible.

U2 and U3 are the beginning and end of totality, respectively. If you live in a region shaded lighter than the "U2" line, you can see the full totality, between U2 and U3 you can see parts of it (before sunrise in the US, after sunset in Asia). Between U1 and U2 (or U3 and U4) you can see a partial eclipse only.

 

[glappkaeft]

Visibility map from Wikipedia. The main article has the times as well. In the US the eclipse is visible very early in the morning, in most of Europe it is not visible.

U2 and U3 are the beginning and end of totality, respectively. If you live in a region shaded lighter than the "U2" line, you can see the full totality, between U2 and U3 you can see parts of it (before sunrise in the US, after sunset in Asia). Between U1 and U2 (or U3 and U4) you can see a partial eclipse only.

View attachment 219406

I'm being a bit picky but Portugal, Spain, France, Iceland, the UK, Ireland, Italy and western Germany is far from most of Europe. I would generally not be this picky (nowhere in Europe or North America is any good this time) but I'm a bit annoyed that my location in Sweden won't have a proper night time lunar eclipse (observable blood moon) until 2028 or so.

 

[Charles Link]

In Chicago we have some clouds, but I did see the full moon about 1/2 hour ago. The lunar eclipse is supposed to occur just before moonset and sunrise here in Chicago from around 5 A.M. to 7 A.M. If I am awake and it is not too cloudy, I hope to get a look at it.

 

[OmCheeto]

In Chicago we have some clouds, but I did see the full moon about 1/2 hour ago. The lunar eclipse is supposed to occur just before moonset and sunrise here in Chicago from around 5 A.M. to 7 A.M. If I am awake and it is not too cloudy, I hope to get a look at it.

This is a very handy website that someone pointed out this morning:

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2018-january-31#

You can enter your local metro area and click on the "See animation of how it will look" link.

This yields a table of how far above the horizon the moon will be during different parts of the eclipse.

You might want to be at the top of the Sears Tower, or whatever they call it nowadays.

 

[mfb]

I'm being a bit picky but Portugal, Spain, France, Iceland, the UK, Ireland, Italy and western Germany is far from most of Europe. I would generally not be this picky (nowhere in Europe or North America is any good this time) but I'm a bit annoyed that my location in Sweden won't have a proper night time lunar eclipse (observable blood moon) until 2028 or so.

Between the P4 and U4 lines you won't see anything special. The full moon still gets sunlight, just a bit less than usual. The large majority of Europeans live south/west of the U4 line. The really interesting part happens to the east of the U3 line, only a very small fraction of Europe is there, and that fraction has a low population density as well.

 

[Charles Link]

I just watched it from 6:15 A.M to 6:40 A.M. in Chicago looking out my front window. Visibility was reasonably good with some clouds and haze. The moon, which was previously full, went from about 50% to less than 5% illuminated during that time. Clouds and haze on the horizon has made it so that the completely eclipsed moon is not visible from my location. In any case, I'm very glad that I got up early to watch it.

 

[Andy Resnick]

It was (and still is) cloudy here.

 

[OmCheeto]

After an uncharacteristically clear evening, it clouded up around 1 am here in Oregon.

 

[Charles Link]

After an uncharacteristically clear evening, it clouded up around 1 am here in Oregon.

I guess I had much more luck than most then. (see post 7). It seems 1/2 of the people are in Europe, and some of the others had a lot of clouds. And the timing for me was quite good. Today Chicago (my location) has heavy cloud cover.

 

[Evo]

Oh shoot, I was awake when it was happening, but forgot to look outside, but the forecast was for cloudy skies.

 

[davenn]

was total cloud here in Sydney, Australia

no pix to share

that's now 4 total eclipses in a row I have missed due to weather
seriously unimpressed

Dave