Did you know that next Monday (April 14th, 2014) North and South America will experience their first Total Lunar Eclipse since June 2011?

But it sooo early in the morning! I’ll take a look at Mars, though, if I remember.

Not too late or too early for retirees. I will be watching!

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I’m going to try and set up my camera to time lapse the eclipse.

I imagine we’ll all be listening to Nick Drake’s Pink Moon.

Lucky you. I saw a great one in Scotland a few years ago. It was about 6 or 7am. Clear clear sky, excellent view out of my living room window. I love the sky!

Well, guess my son’s not sleeping that night. Awesome. I’m looking forward to it.

A tickler to check out the total lunar eclipse late tonight and thru the wee hours tomorrow morning if you live in the US or Canada, The weather forecast looks promising for clear skies.

A good article from Sky and Telescope

Unlike meteor showers or total solar eclipses, this is a leisurely event. You can wander outside any time during the totality to see the eclipsed moon looking like a weird rusty penny (due to reflected sunlight bouncing off the earth and illuminating the moon.)

Wake up your kids for this one. Thank our resident crow for the aide-memoire.

Its going to be all clouds for me tonight :(

Totality begins just after midnight tonight for west coasters (Attention!: @Coloma, @Jeruba, @zenvelo, @filmfann, and the LA area crowd). Add 1hr per timezone east of that. @Hawaiijake will get it at -10:00 UTC, or 9:07pm. @ucme won’t get it this time.

I’ve personally talked to the sea gods who passed the conversation along to the land gods who got together with the weather gods who contacted the demigods-in-charge-of-clouds and they have all agreed to clear the skies for us, with the proviso that some demi-gods may not have been available and therefore there will be a few places where clouds may block the view. I tried. I really tried. I think they might be making an extra effort because the eclipse falls on the first day of Passover, but they were silent on the subject when I mentioned it. I also think they don’t like their work to go unnoticed.

@Espiritus_Corvus; Given the weather here, you are not talking either loudly or clearly enough to any of the deities. Wind is starting to gust; a blast from the WSW just blew several chairs off my deck.

@gailcalled What a bummer. I know how much you would have enjoyed this. Milo must be disappointed as well. I can ask only so much from my contacts among the sea gods. They have been very protective of me during this years-long voyage and I don’t want to push my luck.

It’s raining…...—_—

0337 EDT: Total eclipse. Medium-size moon, dirty orange, just hanging there like a ball suspended on stage with interesting lighting. Very nice. I’m all alone here, aren’t I? Well, that’s the last time I invite you guys to one of my slumber parties. Humph!

You are not alone; I am awake and outside;

12:50 Glimpse of beautiful and uneclipsed full moon through scudding clouds
!:10 Heavy cloud cover
2:20 Heavy cloud cover
3:40 Heavy cloud cover
4:45 Heavy cloud cover

( I got indigestion from the snacks.Your goat peed on me. Thanks a lot).

@gailcalled, my-loyal-friend-among-the-stars. My goats don’t pee on people. They are very high class cheese makers, or so they think. They unappologetically void, or make water, but never pee, or—god forbid—take a piss. I talked to the ram just now and the closest he’ll come to making an apology was to snort and walk away after realizing I wouldn’t play Smack, which is when he holds his forehead out as a clear target and I’m supposed to repeatedly smack him between the eyes with my fist. It’s his favorite game, thanks to his owner, but it plays hell on the knuckles. I’m not about to break my hand so this goat can pursue his strange fetish. He needs to just settle down.

I’m sorry you didn’t get to see the eclipse. Maybe you’ll have better luck with the TLE on October 8th.

But Hark! Take solace, Oh Loyal Stargazer, for only a few days hence we shall have a moderate meteor shower coming our way—the Lyrids—peaking on the nights of 21–22 April, averaging ten shooting stars per hour with some brighter ones, known as “Lyrid fireballs,” that cast shadows for a split second and leave behind smokey debris trails that last minutes. There will be a late moonrise which will keep the sky dark until around 0300 to facilitate fruitful gazing with the naked eye. They will appear to eminate out of constellation Lyra’s brightest star, Vega. As you suffer no light pollution in your part of the Berkshire woods, you should be able to see it quite easily.

Then right after that on 5–7 May will be the Eta Aquarids appearing to eminate out of Aquarius with a moonless sky after midnight. They peak at about a meteor a minute and come to us courtesy of Halley’s Comet. Peaking at about a meteor a minute and appearing to eminate from Aquarius, will be the Eta Aquarids on 5–7 May with moonset after midnight. These come to us courtesy of Halley’s Comet.

Then right after that on 23–24 May an early morning moonrise will abandon the night to the mysterious 209P/LINEAR comet which is expected to shower us with 100 to 400 meteors per hour. from the constellation Camelopardalis with an early morning moon This should rival that spectacular Leonid Shower of 1999. This should surely make up for last night’s rotten luck. Hopefully this will work out as the Persieds are going to be polluted by moonlight this year.

Things are looking up, ma amie.

I’ve just been in deep French countryside with very little light pollution. Amazing skies. Can’t wait to go back in summer when it’s a bit warmer and sit out stargazing