Look Up at the Sky on Friday Evening

Thanks for your input Usbport. I remember viewing a solar eclipse 2 times in my lifetime. Very cool stuff.

There was a good total lunar eclipse visible from the UK a few years ago. It was a clear night in Hailsham that evening, with the full moon taking on a dull orange glow for about an hour, from memory. A football, a tennis ball and a torch/flashlight made a very useful model for discussion purposes with the younger people present at that particular garden party who had not seen such a thing before.

There was a good partial solar visible from the UK in '99. It was almost total in Haverhill, producing some peculiar cusp shapes to the shadows of objects in the gloom. Various improvised pinhole cameras proved very useful in viewing the event.

Celestial mechanics have always inspired mankind and doubtless always will.

Thank you for the report on the lunar. It is facinating to look up into the sky when you would see the stars and moon with shade of the earth in crescent shape even full lunar. No wonder Hawaii is where the biggest eye telescope is placed because in the Pacifc we see very clearly this kind of event which is very interesting- being in the middle of the earth you can see very clearly.

The Orionids Meteor Shower also peaks this weekend. The early am of the 21 being the best.