Tomorrow’s total lunar eclipse of the Moon will provide an unforgettable experience — for those fortunate to live in (or travel to) the western United States, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Asia. Anyone living east of a line from Ohio to Mississippi, however, won’t see anything, as well as those in South America. The penguins in Antarctica will miss quite a show as well.
Lunar eclipses, like this partial one in February 2008, should not be missed! Chris Raymond photo
If you won’t be favorably positioned for the premature darkening of our natural satellite, fear not. You can catch the entire eclipse in real time courtesy of
SLOOH, the online organization whose mission is to provide scientific enlightenment to the masses. Using a series of telescopes, SLOOH will again broadcast this latest celestial event live starting at 8:00 a.m. EST on December 10.
Astronomy magazine’s well-known columnist
Bob Berman, SLOOH’s editor and author of “Strange Universe” and the current special issue Bob Berman’s
50 Weirdest Objects in the Cosmos, will host the three-hour event.
Duncan Copp, a presenter for BBC and National Geographic and director-producer of many astronomy films and TV shows including
In the Shadow of the Moon, an award-wining film about the Apollo astronauts, will join him, as will
Dr. Lucie Green, solar researcher based at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London’s Department of Space and Climate Physics.
I watched the June 15 lunar eclipse in its entirety via my computer courtesy of the SLOOH feed, and, while I’m planning to catch some of tomorrow’s event with my own eyeballs, I know I’m not positioned well again. The Moon will set here in Wisconsin during the initial stages of the eclipse. At that point, I’ll head inside, fire up my Mac, and watch the rest of this spectacle while listening to Berman’s many insights.
If you’ve never experienced a celestial event via SLOOH before, I encourage you to check it out tomorrow. It’s free — all you need to do is
visit this link and click the “On Air” button in the upper right if you’re not automatically transferred to the event.
Whatever you do, make an effort to catch this event no matter where you call home. It’s the last total lunar eclipse until April 15, 2014!