Did you know that today is “National Look Up At The Sky Day”? And if you aren’t under clouds, it is a fantastic
night to be looking up! (Unfortunately,
I think an interesting celestial event is a cloud magnet for this area. We are predicted to have 36* temps and ice
pellets for tonight. Grrrrrrrrr!!!)
But if you are blessed with a clear sky, here’s what you
could see…
A perfect total eclipse of the moon. Everything is lined up just so to give one of
the darkest eclipse in recent history… and the chance of a stunning ‘blood moon’. Have your cameras ready!
In central time zone, the show starts around 11:50pm
tonight. However, it gets exciting after
midnight… at 12:57am CDT to be exact.
That is when the moon slides into the deepest shadows and that is when
it can turn beautiful colors.
At 2:06am CDT, the moon will move into TOTAL darkness. This time is a long phase eclipse and it will
be dark for an hour and a half. End of
totality is at 3:25am when it will pop out with a bright white sliver. And at 4:33am the show is over.
But there is still more to see tonight!
During the eclipse the bright star you see near the moon is
Spica. To the right (west) is bright
Mars. It is at its closest in
years. If you have a small telescope you
can probably see the polar caps! To the
left is yellow Saturn.
And we’re not done yet!
Tonight is also the peak for the April Fireballs! They are big and beautiful, with long
tails. Some can explode in the air and
some have even come on in as meteorites!!
But time to observe is after midnight… while you are watching the
eclipse.
And finally…though you won’t be able to see it… is a near Earth
flyby of Asteroid 2011 GW9!
I really, really hope the sky opens up for me tonight!!!!
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