Last night was a very cool lunar eclipse. I hope you were all out there to enjoy it. Yes it was chilly, but definately worth it. Here's a blurb about it taken from gothamist.com:
Tonight is the last chance until December 2010 to witness a total lunar eclipse. This is the third such eclipse in the past year. With any luck the weather will cooperate. It looks like there will be breaks in the clouds over the city, which should make for dramatic views. Break out the tripods and cameras!
A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth wedges itself between the sun and moon, casting its shadow on the latter. Unlike a solar eclipse you can look at a lunar eclipse without frying your retinas! The partial eclipse, when the earth's shadow starts to take a bite out of the moon, begins at 8:43 p.m.. By 10 p.m. the moon will be swallowed by the earth's shadow and will remain that way until nearly 11 o'clock. Bad Astronomy Blog and NASA have lots more details. As the earth's shadow creeps across the moon the moon doesn't get completely dark as you might expect, but turns brownish or even blood red. The reddish hue is because some sunlight gets refracted through the earth's atmosphere.
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