Eclipses

[SineCosineTangent]

Not talking Twilight here, the real moon-y/sun-y ones.

Right now, there is a total lunar eclipse visible in North America, and it's making the moon a nice shade of red. Were it not so chilly out, I would have watched it from start to totality.

My family and I traveled to see the total solar eclipse in 1999- we ended up in Austria for it, and it was a wild experience.

So, my question to y'all: What has been your experience with eclipses? Ever seen one? Total or partial, lunar or solar?~ If you haven't, would you be interested in seeing one if it was visible nearby?~

 

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Oh gods, Eclipses. Eclipsii? Eclipsen? Whatever. Celestial bodies getting eaten. By shadows.

... That sounds like a sci-fi plot.

Herpderp.

ANYWAY. THIS side of the planet rarely get any full awesome eclipseses. The only one I actually remember is a full lunar eclipse that hit at the worst possible time ever.

This was during basic training (lolz, army) back in April(?) 2004. Pretty close to the end of it actually. We had a night range. Now. I am not that handy with rifles. You could say I am somewhat... (sunglasses) AIMLESS. And having to hit a target at night? Yeaaaaaah. But, the moon was particularily bright that night, so I figured it wouldn't be bad.

Pfff. Wrong.

RIGHT before I had to shoot targets.... POOF. Who turned off the lights? LUNAR ECLIPSE?! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Yeaaaaaaaaah. I have no idea how I managed to hit anything that night.

Needless to say, right when I finished with that and the next poor sod got to try shooting things... the damn thing was over. If that's not the universe flipping me off personally, I don't know what is.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

I didn't get to see the lunar eclipse earlier this morning, but I did get to see the one that happened back when I was in...middle school I think. Luckily that one occurred before 10 PM. I remember it being really cool seeing the moon turn this cool red color before totally disappearing as though we were in a New Moon. I'd loooooove to see a total solar eclipse, but so far my only experience has been a partial one. And trust me, it was partial. You had to know that there was a partial eclipse or you would've missed it--that's how minuscule it was.

That's just about what the one I saw looked like. Only it was earlier in the day than the one in this picture, so the sun was shining brightly making it it harder to see.

My neck of the woods isn't due for a total solar eclipse until 2017 so I would love to take a stab at seeing that one.

 

[Louie Forest]

I saw the moon when I was driving home from somewhere. It was a bright shade of red and a full moon! It was a lunar eclipse and is the first one I have ever saw.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

For my own strange reason, I always keep track of what day the full moon falls on a month and therefore usually find out about lunar eclipses. I think in the last five years I've only missed like one or two.

For this one, my brother and I stayed up late last night into this morning until it was time to go outside to watch it from start to finish. Unfortunately, we were misinformed on time. Our research told us 3a, but it actually started at two as the moon had just finished going into the umbra when we came outside. The eclipse was right above our front porch so we didn't have to go anywhere special, just stand there for two hours freezing our asses off watching it emerge from the shadow. At 5a there was still a little sliver of the moon still missing, but we said screw it because our toes had gone numb and various other parts of our bodies were well on there way. It was totally worth it.

I have to say though, I still want to see a total solar eclipse. Even a partial would be nice as I've never seen and hint of eclipsing with the sun.

 

[Doubled]

Durnit! I knew I missed something last night. Damn thee Yugioh Abridged and your hilarity!

Anyway, the last lunar eclipse I saw was when I was little and my family was still together. My mother, father, and sister were all sitting in my bathroom, which conveniently had a skylight, watching the moon turn blood red. Needless to say, I was scared, and was wondering why the moon was bleeding.

As for solar eclipses, I saw one back in Kintergarden (or however you spell it). I swear, I got up and I thought my mother had just gotten tired of me, so she would just dump me off at school for the night. I was wrong. I swear, it was so odd. I hated the dark, and I hated my school too. So, combine the two and you have a classroom filled with snotty nosed kids sticking blocks up their noses at night. Scary stuff. I wanted to look at the corona around it, but I didn't even know what that was at the time. I know it lasted for a while though.

Seriously though, I probably couldn't see my lunar eclipse last night anyway due to all of the clouds.

 

[Myth Busted]

We were supposed to have one yesterday at around 8AM, a lunar eclipse.

Of course, I missed it. I had waited to see it all day the day before. Clouds were nowhere to be seen the night before, but NO says stupid Irish weather. Clouds all morning. Then it snowed to add to the lack of clear sky.

My only other eclipses I witnessed... one on New Year's Eve last year where it looked like part of the moon was missing. I only saw that one because I was in the country though.

There was a solar eclipse on the day my sister was born, and my father who for some reason was not in the hospital looking after the baby, was in his father's house with me and there was a telescope set up in the garden. We had to wear sunglasses. It was pretty awesome.

 

[Secad MS]

I didn't get to see the eclipse as I was really tired and went to bed early, but I have seen one in the past. One I didn't find exciting was one a few years ago, visible to North America. It looked like a cloud was traveling over the moon, blotting it out. No color, no corona of light, just a shadow.