June 26 2010 Partial Lunar Eclipse

[PPI Brian]

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up about the upcoming partial lunar eclipse. The weather may not cooperate, but it's still worth checking out if you're up that early in the morning and have an unobstructed view of the west. The event begins at about 1:57 am but won't become noticeable until 3:30 am. 

Here's the lastest from NASA:

Partial Lunar Eclipse of June 26
The first lunar eclipse of 2010 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in western Sagittarius about 3 degrees east of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). It is visible from much of the Americas, the Pacific and eastern Asia (Figure 2). The Moon's contact times with Earth's shadows are listed below.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins:   08:57:21 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins:       10:16:57 UT
Greatest Eclipse:           11:38:27 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends:       12:59:50 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends:     14:19:34 UT
At the instant of greatest eclipse the umbral eclipse magnitude will reach 0.5368. At that time the Moon will be at the zenith for observers in the South Pacific. In spite of the fact that barely half of the Moon enters the umbral shadow (the Moon's northern limb dips 16.2 arc-minutes into the umbra), the partial phase still lasts 2 2/3 hours.

Figure 2 shows the path of the Moon through the penumbra and umbra as well as a map of Earth showing the regions of eclipse visibility. New England and eastern Canada will miss the entire eclipse since the event begins after moonset from those regions. Observers in western Canada and the USA will have the best views with moonset occurring sometime after mid-eclipse. To catch the entire event, one must be located in the Pacific or eastern Australia.

Table 3 lists predicted umbral immersion and emersion times for 15 well-defined lunar craters. The timing of craters is useful in determining the atmospheric enlargement of Earth's shadow (see Crater Timings During Lunar Eclipses).

The June 26 partial lunar eclipse belongs to Saros 120, a series of 83 eclipses in the following sequence: 21 penumbral, 7 partial, 25 total, 7 partial, and 23 penumbral lunar eclipses (Espenak and Meeus, 2009). Complete details for the series can be found at:

eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEsaros/LEsaros120.html
In case the June Gloom obscures your view, here's a simulation of the event from Starry Night:

[PPI Karl]

Cool!  Thanks, Brian.  Are you planning to take any pics with your telescope for this?

[PPI Brian]

Hi Karl,

My trusty ETX 60 telescope, imager and laptop are on standby and the beer is chillin in the frige. What the heck, it's Saturday -- I can sleep in.

This is the first lunar eclipse we've had since 2008, and that one was almost a wash because of a rain storm. Managed to get a few shots of totality, but they weren't very good. This will only be a partial eclipse, but I have been looking forward to it.

Here are two of my best images from the April 20, 2008 Lunar Eclipse:

[PPI Tracy]

This is awesome, Brian.  Thank you!

[PPI Tim]

I'm not going to be up to watch this. I have to work Saturday.

[PPI Brian]

The El Cajon Clear Sky Clock prediction is not good.  (


http://cleardarksky.com/c/ElCjnCAkey.html?1

[PPI Brian]

 (

This morning's partial lunar eclipse reminded me of an early Pink Floyd Album.



Does anybody know the name of this album? (You can always cheat and look at the name of the attached file)

The next lunar eclipse will be a total on December 20, 2010. 

[PPI Tim]

Could it be "Obscured by clouds.

[PPI Brian]

Announcer: "You are correct, sir. Ed, tell him what he's won!"

Ed: "You have won... absolutely nothing! Thank you for playing Astronomus Obscurus."

[Damian]

Pink Floyd is my absolute favorite band! And you are dead-on about it looking like an album cover.  I missed the eclipse but last nights moon was beautiful.

[ljiljanac]

"If ya don't eat your meat, ya can't have any pudding!  How can ya have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!?"  hahahaha!!!   

[PPI Tracy]

Wow.  That is a trip.

[Damian]

Props to Lillie for quoting The Wall!

[ljiljanac]

Props to Lillie for quoting The Wall!

lol lol  "Thank yaaaaa...thank ya very muuuch."  (bow, bow)  lol   And Damian, only a true Pink Floyd fan would know it was The Wall.  You win!!!.....nothing!   lol

[Damian]

I'll take nothing over something any day.  Wait, I think I messed that up... All work and no play makes Damian nuts.

[ljiljanac]

(Seinfeld Soup Nazi voice)......."White powdered wig for you!!!!"      

[PPI Tracy]

Wanna hear something weird?  No?  Well, I'm tellin' ya anyway....

I used to put on side two (yes...a cassette tape) of The Wall at night and fall asleep to it. I did that for about a year or so when I was in high school.

Maybe that's  what's wrong with me.....   

[Damian]

Side 2 is definitely good listening, but very unusual to fall asleep to.  I used to fall asleep to the Wish You Were here album...and I even used that album as bedtime music for my son when he was a toddler.  Is there anything Pink Floyd isn't good for? I think not!

[ljiljanac]

Damian.....nope.   

[PPI Tracy]

Last night I was driving home from a walkthrough for a client and on KSBR 88.5, they have classes about music from Saddleback College.  They always feature an album, talk about the the melody, how the album affected society, the meaning behind the songs and a lot of just great info that you wouldn't hear anywhere else.  They start at the first song and just go one by one. So what album do you think it was?

Pink Floyd:  Dark Side of the Moon.

My God.  I was in heaven. 

[Damian]

I just learned something last month about The Dark Side of the Moon album that I never knew before.

You know that song The Great Gig in the Sky?...where it's the beautiful and soulful non-lyric wailing of beautiful female voice...  At one point in the song you'll hear a woman whisper faintly "If you understand this part, you died."... It's at 3 minutes and about 32 seconds into the track.

I have literally listened to that album and song hundreds of times and never noticed that faint and unnerving statement!  When I hear it now I get chills, especially because the song is a musical interpretation of death!

[Damian]

I just double-checked my Pink Floyd resources and learned that the phrase I quoted is incorrect.  It's actually "I never said I was frightened of dying."  Still gives me shivers when I hear it.

[PPI Brian]

Hi Damian,

You are correct -- here's the lyrics:

The Great Gig in the Sky
(Wright) 4:44

"And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, I
don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying?
There's no reason for it, you've gotta go sometime."

"If you can hear this whispering you are dying."

"I never said I was frightened of dying."

(Instrumental)

[PPI Tracy]

OMG!  They talked about this song, played it.....and NEVER EVER even broached the subject of this.  WOW!  Now I am going to HAVE to listen to it again.

I love this stuff.  We need to start a thread of nothing but music trivia.  (it's my inner geek. sorry)   

[PPI Brian]

OMG!  They talked about this song, played it.....and NEVER EVER even broached the subject of this.  WOW!  Now I am going to HAVE to listen to it again.

I love this stuff.  We need to start a thread of nothing but music trivia.  (it's my inner geek. sorry)   

funny how you can listen to an album over and over and then one day -- bam! -- you get it.  I never realized that the entire album Dark Side of the Moon was about death until I was listening to it on my walkman while digging graves at the cemetery. It sounds kind of stupid, but while I was listening to the song "Breathe" these lyrics hit me in a very deep and emotional level:

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

I rewound the cassette tape and played it again and understood it for the very first time.

Breathe
(Waters, Gilmour, Wright) 2:44

Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave but don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.

Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave.

[Damian]

Exactly Brian... You have to be in just the right state of mind, and have had life experience that in some way relates.  Then WHAM, it dawns on you and the song becomes more than lyrics set to music.  You've related to it on a much deeper level.

It's funny, even just reading those lyrics I hear the music in my mind and I immediately break out in goose bumps!...all that happens from simply reading a certain combination of words.  Music is a truly powerful device.

[PPI Tracy]

This song really mirrors a lot of stuff that I am dealing with right now in my life.  But more on the surface of things.....without reposting the lyrics to "Breathe", it's ironic that......

I had a panic attack in the middle of the night last night.  It woke me up and I couldn't breathe.  I finally got up and walked to the window for air, and in my backyard lay a beautiful cream and white rabbit......missing it's head.   

[PPI Brian]

Exactly Brian... You have to be in just the right state of mind, and have had life experience that in some way relates.  Then WHAM, it dawns on you and the song becomes more than lyrics set to music.  You've related to it on a much deeper level.

It's funny, even just reading those lyrics I hear the music in my mind and I immediately break out in goose bumps!...all that happens from simply reading a certain combination of words.  Music is a truly powerful device.

That reminds me of an old MRI study I read about brain activity while listening to music. The subjects of the experiment were scanned while listening to music on headphones, then scanned while they were listening to music "in their head". Freaky thing was, the results were nearly identical. Seems the human brain is wired for music, which is the reason why music can dredge up so many emotions and memories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/arts/music/31thom.html?_r=1

[PPI Brian]

This song really mirrors a lot of stuff that I am dealing with right now in my life.  But more on the surface of things.....without reposting the lyrics to "Breathe", it's ironic that......

I had a panic attack in the middle of the night last night.  It woke me up and I couldn't breathe.  I finally got up and walked to the window for air, and in my backyard lay a beautiful cream and white rabbit......missing it's head.   

That's awful, Tracy. I'm sorry to hear that. Was it a pet rabbit?

[PPI Tracy]

We have a lot of rabbits around our area but just your run of the mill Bugs Bunnies.  This one was beautiful.  I don't know anyone who has a pet rabbit.  (thank god taylor didn't see it)