All Things Bubba

Actually, it's a total eclipse of the moon - tonight. And it's just about ideal for those in the eastern half of the US. (Californians - and Seattlites - are out of luck.) The peak of the eclipse is about 10:30 pm eastern time. Late enough so the moon is high and it's nice and dark, early enough so people are still awake.

Here's a map of eclipse visibility:


More info, including the times for other time zones, is available at NASA. (If you get a 404, try again. They're getting a lot of traffic today.)

This will be your last chance to see a lunar eclipse for three years. You never know what you're going to get. Sometimes the eclipsed moon looks dark gray, sometimes it's flaming orange, sometimes it's somewhere in between. A cleaner atmosphere means better color.

I am going to try to photograph it. I have a fairly long lens that I use for sports photography (at least when I feel like lugging it along to games - it's darned heavy!). Not sure if it will be enough for good moon photos, but I'm going to try. Night photography is pretty new to me, so who knows how the pics will turn out.

And of course, I'm at the mercy of the weather. Hopefully, there won't be too many clouds tonight. The forecast this morning was great, but they're predicting some clouds now.

Then there's this article:

Lunar eclipses have coincided or been consequential in several historic events, from the death of Roman kings to the journey of Christopher Columbus, from the fall of ancient civilizations to the Boston Red Sox winning their first World Series in 86 years.

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