Super Blood Wolf Moon 2019
January 18, 2019 2:37 PM   Subscribe

No, it's not that T-shirt. It's actually a total lunar eclipse and "super moon." NASA: Viewers in North and South America, as well as those in western parts of Europe and Africa, will be able to watch one of the sky's most dazzling shows on Jan. 20, 2019, when the Sun, Earth and Moon align at 9:12 p.m. PST (12:12 a.m. EST), creating a total lunar eclipse. The full moon will also be at its closest point to Earth in its orbit, called perigee.

National Geographic:

During totality, the full moon does not disappear entirely and instead turns a rusty shade of red, earning it the moniker “blood moon.” This lunar eclipse happens to coincide with the wolf moon, the traditional name for the January full moon. What's more, the moon on January 20 will be unusually close to Earth and so will be slightly bigger and brighter, making it a so-called supermoon.
posted by mandolin conspiracy (73 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
the moon got some new marketing people within the past few years, didn't it?
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:54 PM on January 18, 2019 [32 favorites]


Now I want to know what the full moons in the rest of the months are called.

Is there a marmoset moon?
posted by darkstar at 3:00 PM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


Why does all the cool celestial stuff happen during the PNW rainy season? *pout*
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:12 PM on January 18, 2019 [7 favorites]


the moon got some new marketing people within the past few years, didn't it?

Moon: I really want to get noticed again...what're the kids calling it now?

Ad agency person: "Going viral."

Moon: Yeah, that's it.

Ad agency person: You know, you never should have fired Duran Duran. But look, we've got some angles I think we can work, maybe a brand refresh. We'll get back to you with something.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:20 PM on January 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


Super Blood Wolf Moon

I think I had that on the SNES
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:32 PM on January 18, 2019 [6 favorites]


RIP Fred Cole.
posted by humboldt32 at 3:57 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


It is something I am keen to have a gander at (if I am up at 5:00 AM). The only downside is that for the next fifteen years my aunt will be sending out e-mails every January about the upcoming super red moon.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:15 PM on January 18, 2019


Call me jaded, but I’m not going outside in this weather for anything less than a Super Blood ROBOT Wolf Moon.
posted by etc. at 4:18 PM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


Oh, Lord I long to be in thy number...
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:22 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


the moon got some new marketing people within the past few years, didn't it?

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to check the moon's current phase on my iPhone, so I went and got the MOON app which tells you exactly that.

Little did I know that the app also sends you whimsical messages from the moon (along with an eerie notification sound) every time it hits new or full...

(I personally approve of weird nonsense like this, but there's also a more practical Moon app.)
posted by neckro23 at 5:16 PM on January 18, 2019 [6 favorites]


Now I want to know what the full moons in the rest of the months are called.

Full moon names.
posted by the_blizz at 5:43 PM on January 18, 2019 [7 favorites]


July 16: Full Buck Moon

Now they're just being filthy.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:47 PM on January 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


Little did I know that the app also sends you whimsical messages from the moon (along with an eerie notification sound) every time it hits new or full...

Sold! Oh hey. It's free, even.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:51 PM on January 18, 2019


Looks like those of us who have the eclipse rained out can watch it online somewhere.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:26 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I'm sure I've written about this moment in my life on MF before, but I'm going to write about it again because it changed the way I interact with celestial mechanics.

About 25 years ago, living in southern New Mexico, there was one evening during which a total lunar eclipse which was starting, where I lived, right at the same moment as the start of sunset. The moon was fairly high in the sky as the sun started to go behind the horizon, which was fairly flat and easily visible. So as I'm standing watching the sun go down, I'm also looking up and watching the fuzzy edge of the planet's shadow start to show on the satellite hanging high above me.

The planet is moving between a light source and its subject of illumination.

I'm standing on an object that I can actively watch, hanging in the infinite void, cast its shadow on something else and literally see it happening.

It was an astonishing moment, probably very rare (this FPP's upcoming lunar eclipse will happen after sunset, as most of them do). Even though I grew up next door to an astronomer who saw my interest in SPACE! and helped teach me and feed my interest. Even though I used to go to stargazing parties at Clyde Tombaugh's house (he lived in my hometown), even though I'd been learning about planets and orbits and eclipses and such most of my life, this one moment... standing on the edge of the Earth as it moved between the Sun and the Moon and being able to watch the entire thing in real time with both bodies visible while it was happening...

...Totally changed my perception of all of these things. It wasn't an intellectual exercise, it was something I actually watched happen. MIND BLOWN.

(The moon doesn't actually turn red until it's within the right zone of the Earth's shadow where the light is being bent just right, so it's not like the sunset finished and suddenly RED MOON in the sky. It gets darker as the shadow starts and then during "totality" turns red. Sort of the opposite of the drama of a solar eclipse. Unless you're standing in the right place right at sunset.)
posted by hippybear at 6:49 PM on January 18, 2019 [23 favorites]


Gonna be snowing over here, more's the pity.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:55 PM on January 18, 2019


hippybear, that sounds incredible.
posted by twilightlost at 7:18 PM on January 18, 2019


The moon doesn't actually turn red until

the chosen Fifth Vessel performs the proper ablutions in the blood of the Sorrowful Lamb. We all went to high school, hippybear.
posted by Sangermaine at 7:50 PM on January 18, 2019 [15 favorites]


About 25 years ago, living in southern New Mexico, there was one evening during which a total lunar eclipse which was starting, where I lived, right at the same moment as the start of sunset. The moon was fairly high in the sky as the sun started to go behind the horizon, which was fairly flat and easily visible.

How can that work?

Total lunar eclipse means that the Sun, Earth and Moon lie on a straight line, in that order. Which means that just before and after the Earth shadows the moon, they're in a very nearly straight line, which makes it a full moon and puts moonrise at sunset. So I don't understand how the moon could have been "fairly high in the sky as the sun started to go behind the horizon". I would have expected it to be very low in the sky.
posted by flabdablet at 8:31 PM on January 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


But wait, no, dude, like - define high ...'cuz, I mean, even when it's low, it's like - it's still waaay up in the sky, right?
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:37 PM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I just upgraded my camera to 24 mp from 10 & I also have a new-ish 300 mm lens, so if the sky is at all clear, I’ll be out in the yard all night. I may have to set up in the neighbor’s yard because of trees, but if I drag the telescope over there too, they’ll probably enjoy that too.

The last time we had an eclipse on a good clear night, the sewer people had my whole street blocked off about 50 feet from my driveway, so my & the kid set up th scope, camera tripod & a couple of lawn chairs right in the middle of the road. It confused a few pedestrian passerby, but when I invited them for a look (it’s shocking that a person can be out for a walk & not notice a full eclipse, but there you go) they were invariably appreciative of the view.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:41 PM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I just upgraded my camera to 24 mp from 10 & I also have a new-ish 300 mm lens

*involuntarily drools*
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:45 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I honestly could build a set involving a light bulb and a tennis ball and a golf ball which would show you exactly how this would happen, but I'll let you work out the celestial mechanics on your own.
posted by hippybear at 8:46 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


...Totally changed my perception of all of these things. It wasn't an intellectual exercise, it was something I actually watched happen. MIND BLOWN.


I had a similar instance in the fall of 1997 when there were 5 visible planets all in a neat line - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn, all lined up with the waxing crescent moon at sunset & standing in my driveway with the blue dusk on the western horizon, I could just feel the whole plane of the solar system & exactly where I stood on the Earth as it spun to the east. A very heavy YOU ARE HERE moment.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:50 PM on January 18, 2019 [10 favorites]


I tried very hard to get good lunar eclipse pictures a couple years back and was shocked that even a 400mm lens was generally not long enough. The only decent shot I salvaged was not during the eclipse itself; all those ended up too dark.

The most surprising thing I learned in trying to shoot a very distant dim object was that the moon actually moves pretty quickly relative to us.

And for what it's worth, that lens was rented for the occasion. It's way too expensive for the amount I'd use it.
posted by Cogito at 8:52 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I actually managed a couple By aiming my camera at the telescope eyepiece, but by totality it was too dim, so I was left with relatively long exposures at 200 mm & they’re fuzzy from the motion of the sky. The D80 was just garbage at high iso, but the D7100 does much better, so I’m hoping for relatively sharper images at iso 800 or 1600.

Clouds willing.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:12 PM on January 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


You might need to buy one of those things that moves the camera at the appropriate speed to match the motion. They are pretty common.
posted by hippybear at 9:21 PM on January 18, 2019


Over the past couple of hours I have favorited Devils Ranchers comment about the whole plane of the solar system another 100 times in my mind.
posted by hippybear at 10:47 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


i was on the nasa website linked above and immediately, almost reflexively, started scanning for pro-trump propaganda because it's a federal govt site. i caught myself.. and then was despondent.
posted by wibari at 11:32 PM on January 18, 2019


The blood moon rises once again... please, be careful, Link.
posted by Quackles at 11:37 PM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


"The blood moon rises once again... please, be careful, Link."
Thinking this was in reference to an obscure Michael Landon movie, I copied it into Google and found... cooking recipes.
This was not what I expected.
But I am excited about the lunar eclipse. Hopefully it will be visible in spite of our weird wintery weather, but there you go.
I am under orders from the husband and kids not to text them or try to drag them out into the below-freezing night. More hot cocoa for me.
posted by TrishaU at 12:14 AM on January 19, 2019


those things that moves the camera at the appropriate speed to match the motion... Equatorial mount.

some of the big ones at observatories in the computer age were first programmed in FORTH.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:55 AM on January 19, 2019


The sky is so big in the Southwest, the horizon so far away, and the celestial bodies are magnified/distorted at sunset. You can definitely see things that don't seem like they ought to be visible on a straight line.

I first got glasses around ten years old and for the first couple months I made a near-nightly habit of sneaking out to look at however much of the moon was visible, because it just looked so GD cool.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:43 AM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is a much nicer birthday present than the 2017 Inauguration.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:44 AM on January 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


RIP Fred Cole.
posted by humboldt32


The lunar eclipse used to be called Fred Cole?
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:59 AM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


hippybear, that sounds incredible... flabdablet is right tough: either the moon was low above the horizon, or you were in a system with more than one star. It's called something like selenhelion (?)... I've never seen one, but I'm pretty sure it's mind-blowing enough to explain how you'd misremember where exactly the moon was...
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 8:15 AM on January 19, 2019


No, I don't mis-remember where the moon was.

The Earth is a sphere, and is bigger than your brain can truly imagine, and it's MUCH farther away from the Sun than it is the moon. And I'm obviously standing on the leading edge of this sphere as it moves between the sun and the moon. And there is nothing in your daily experience of light sources and cast shadows which can give you any real life experience at all of exactly this situation of objects.

If the horizon over which you are mistakenly convinced that the moon should be close to was, say, 9 o'clock, this moon was closer to 10:30, 11 o'clock in the sky.

This moment is so clear in my memory, and I have others who were with me who also witnessed this, and all of them (if I were in touch when them which I am not) would say the moon was not close to the horizon at all.

In fact, in the town where this happened, the moon could not have even been visible if it were closer to the horizon because there's a giant mountain range that stands east of town that would have blocked it from view.

Like, honestly, I don't have the power or ability to draw out exactly how this works, but stop telling me I was mistaken or whatever. I know what I saw, I know where the moon was in the sky because I STOOD IN THE STREET POINTING AT IT SO OTHER PEOPLE WOULD NOTICE IT. I remember roughly what angle my arm was at when I was pointing at it.

Stop telling me I am wrong. I will stand by this until I die because I lived it, I held parts of my body in specific positions to get others to see it, I know what happened. You weren't there. Just stop.
posted by hippybear at 9:01 AM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


I think the phenomenon of atmospheric refraction adds weight to hippybear's story (if that's even needed). At the point when it looked to him like "the sun started to go behind the horizon" it was physically already below the horizon, allowing the earth to throw its shadow on the moon even at the moon's particular position in the sky.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:42 AM on January 19, 2019


I guess I'm waiting for hippybear to build a set involving a light bulb and a tennis ball and a golf ball, 'cause I like the idea of sun, moon, and earth in a straight line.
Was it the 1993 eclipse? That seems to be the only candidate. There the sun set at 5:18, penumbra started at 8:29, and partial eclipse started at 9:40.
The moon would be high, but I don't know how the first part of the story happens.
posted by MtDewd at 2:28 PM on January 19, 2019


Metafilter: I held parts of my body in specific positions
posted by ericost at 2:38 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


I honestly could build a set involving a light bulb and a tennis ball and a golf ball which would show you exactly how this would happen

I'd be happy with a MS Paint diagram, because I'm still not seeing it.

I have no trouble with the idea of the moon being well above the horizon as the Earth's shadow started visibly occluding it. It's only the part about the moon being high in the sky as the sun dipped below the horizon that I'm currently having trouble reconciling with everything I presently understand about 3D geometry.
posted by flabdablet at 4:25 PM on January 19, 2019


At the point when it looked to him like "the sun started to go behind the horizon" it was physically already below the horizon, allowing the earth to throw its shadow on the moon even at the moon's particular position in the sky.

The moon's orbit makes moonrise happen about an hour later every day. On the evening of a full moon, moonrise and sunset happen within about half an hour of each other. Atmospheric refraction shifts sunset by only a few minutes, nowhere near enough to let the moon get "fairly high in the sky" by the time the horizon occludes the sun.

I know where the moon was in the sky because I STOOD IN THE STREET POINTING AT IT SO OTHER PEOPLE WOULD NOTICE IT. I remember roughly what angle my arm was at when I was pointing at it.

I have no trouble at all believing that your memory of doing that thing is perfectly accurate. But I don't understand why anybody would stand in the street pointing at the moon if it wasn't doing anything unusual, which it would certainly not have been doing at the start of a lunar eclipse. I do understand why somebody would do that as the umbra started to cross the moon. And since you speak of the "fuzzy edge of the planet's shadow", you're definitely describing the edge of the umbra; to the extent that the penumbra has an edge at all, it's fuzzier than the width of the moon and all you see as it begins to cross is a gradual darkening of the whole thing.

But the fact of the umbra crossing the moon is absolute proof that the Earth at that instant does lie on a straight line drawn between the moon and the sun, which means that the sun's angle below the western horizon is equal to the moon's angle above the eastern one. You can argue with me, but you can't argue with geometry.

If you remember standing in the street pointing up at a visibly eclipsing moon at sunset, you are remembering something physically impossible. Perhaps today is the day your perception about the reliability of human memory changes as profoundly as your perception of celestial mechanics did in 1993.
posted by flabdablet at 5:16 PM on January 19, 2019


Here's a totally un-silly question, because I'm honestly a bit baffled about your level of pushback on hippybear's story: How do you define "pointing up"? As in, what would the minimum necessary angle above the horizon have to be for you to consider someone's arm to be pointing "up"?

Also:

the umbra crossing the moon is absolute proof that the Earth at that instant does lie on a straight line drawn between the moon and the sun

The bulk of the earth is going to start interrupting the sunlight hitting the moon way before its center of mass is "in a straight line" between the moon and the sun, eh? For instance, imagine lining up a bright light and an orange, then starting to introduce a basketball between them, and think about whether the center of the entire basketball has to be in a straight line with the two end points in order to start throwing shade on the orange.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:08 PM on January 19, 2019


Or better yet, see the graphic starting at about 0:21 of this video, and note where the lines of light criss-cross just a bit before the line of shadow on the earth indicating "sunset", and how far before even that that the moon starts to be affected by the earth's shadow.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:22 PM on January 19, 2019


I'm pretty sure, based on where I was living at the time, that the eclipse in question was March 23-24, 1997, in which the penumbra began to hit the moon around 6:40pm which was about 30 minutes after moonrise, umbra began around 8pm, sunset was at 6:20pm. This would have put the moon high enough in the sky for me to see it above the mountains in the East as the event was beginning.

I'm honored to have been subjected to the full-on force of MetaFilter somehow thinking I'm lying on the internet, and pleased to have been given the tools I needed to find that my memory is not, in fact, in error.
posted by hippybear at 9:48 AM on January 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


I’m not saying you're lying, hippybear, but I still can’t figure out what you saw and how you saw it. The penumbra doesn’t have a distinct line like you describe. When the moon passed through the penumbra, all you see is a slight darkening of the moon. The distinct line you describe happens with the umbra, which you say began around 8pm, with the sun setting at 6:20. So I don’t understand how you could see the umbra (8p) at the same time as the sunset (6:20p).
posted by Weeping_angel at 11:08 AM on January 20, 2019


Never said or believed you were lying. Never once ascribed to you a desire to deceive. Only ever said that I didn't understand how the events you described were physically possible.

I have no trouble at all imagining a younger hippybear looking at a huge full moon hanging a few degrees above the mountains as the sun sunk below the horizon, anticipating the coming eclipse with excitement and wonder. I also have no trouble imagining you in the street pointing up at a moon 20 degrees above the mountains as a visible bite starts being taken out of it an hour and a half later.

But I also know enough about how my own memory works to be completely comfortable with the opinion that the hour and a half in question would be more likely than not to have been elided from a memory from twenty years ago.

This right here:

So as I'm standing watching the sun go down, I'm also looking up and watching the fuzzy edge of the planet's shadow start to show on the satellite hanging high above me.

I understand and accept that you're completely certain that this is what you experienced. I'm in no way attempting to suggest that you're lying. I'm saying that your brain has more than likely conflated the emotionally important parts of two separate events that you did experience.

As the sun set in Las Cruces on 23 March 1997, the moon had been up for about ten minutes; maybe a bit less even, given mountains. That's not "high above me". It just isn't.

Watching the Earth's shadow cross the moon is a profound thing. Much more profound than the difference between sunset and twilight.
posted by flabdablet at 2:03 PM on January 20, 2019


The bulk of the earth is going to start interrupting the sunlight hitting the moon way before its center of mass is "in a straight line" between the moon and the sun, eh? For instance, imagine lining up a bright light and an orange, then starting to introduce a basketball between them, and think about whether the center of the entire basketball has to be in a straight line with the two end points in order to start throwing shade on the orange.

This line of argument is misleading because the proportions of the sizes of bright lights, oranges, basketballs and the distances between them in a room are nowhere near those applicable to the Earth, moon and sun in space. All the angles involved in eclipses are much more acute than those in your proposed thought experiment.

As viewed from here, the discs of moon and sun subtend roughly equal angles: about half a degree each. So during an eclipse, the body casting the shadow can only start to do so when all three are within about a degree of being in a straight line, which is as near as makes no visible difference; certainly not enough of a difference to put one of them "high above" the horizon right as the other dips below it.

This animation is a rather better intuition pump than oranges and basketballs.
posted by flabdablet at 2:36 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


The drive to prove others wrong is a fundamental flaw in the social structure of this community.
posted by hippybear at 2:44 PM on January 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


But, going by your timeline, what you said you saw didn’t happen. This video shows the difference between a penumbral eclipse and an umbral eclipse. Not even getting into the position of the moon in the sky at sunset, you say that sunset happened at 6:20 and the umbral portion of the eclipse happened at 8:00. You describe seeing the fuzzy line of the earth’s shadow. As you can watch in the video, that’s the umbral eclipse and it happened at 8 pm. While the penumbral portion of the eclipse did start at 6:40 pm, all that looks like is a very slight dimming of the brightness of the moon. Not a shadow with a line. What you describe isn’t physically possible.
posted by Weeping_angel at 3:53 PM on January 20, 2019


prove to me that the moon even really exists
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:58 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


On the upside, it looks like it's going to be relatively clear in Toronto, where I'm at, tonight.

On the downside, from Environment Canada's forecast for this evening (all temperatures in Celcius):

Wind north 30 km/h gusting to 60. Low minus 23. Wind chill minus 26 in the evening and minus 36 overnight. Frostbite in minutes.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:05 PM on January 20, 2019


On that basis, I may actually just watch it online.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:06 PM on January 20, 2019


It was perfectly clear this morning, & now it’s cloudy here. :-/
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:03 PM on January 20, 2019


I'm watching out my kitchen window... pretty... no shadow, yet (come on, come on)....
posted by TrishaU at 7:04 PM on January 20, 2019


Heh, there's just enough high cirrus tonight to slightly obscure the Moon while leaving its large scale features still easily visible. It makes me wish a 300mm lens was enough to get a decent pic, which past experience tells me is not the case.

Also, regarding hippybear's experience, not being at the equator makes a significant difference in the angles vs. what one might expect upon initial thought. As does the tilt of the Earth's axis except when very close to the eqinoxes.
posted by wierdo at 7:31 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


Also, 58F with 9 knot winds is too cold for this. It was nice and warm last night, so I'm quite annoyed with mother nature right now.
posted by wierdo at 7:36 PM on January 20, 2019


58F

Hah. Right now it's around -5F here, with 18 knot winds, so 58 would feel positively tropical and pleasantly breezy.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:45 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


I was a bit rusty on my Norse mythology and was moderately impressed when my Google Assistant was able to answer "Hey Google, who eats the moon?"

(Fenrir, btw.)
posted by NMcCoy at 7:51 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


Ooooooh it's here (and luckily clear and not too cold where I am.) Heard some (human) howling which reminded me that I'd only noted the time of maximum eclipse, not the start and end times. Got out just in time to see the penumbra on its way out and the redness of totality. It'll be here for a while, so I'm making myself a warm beverage.

I always feel like such a kid when I get all excited about celestial events.
posted by invokeuse at 9:02 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


Our windows don’t face in the right direction, so I bundled up and headed outside to have a look-see.

Hoo boy. It’s cold out there. It’s not the temperature so much (-23C right now)...it’s the rippin’ wind that gusting 40-50 km/h.

But! It’s a crystal-clear night. Great view.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:05 PM on January 20, 2019


It's 36 F, the moon is dark, and I can see stars but I can't make out the constellations as usual.
Anyway, Happy Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse! The next one is in a couple of years, so yeah!
Must make popcorn....
posted by TrishaU at 9:08 PM on January 20, 2019


Just came in from viewing the totality. I put my coat on over my nightgown and hobbled out for a peek. It was nice and clear, but the dang streetlights are so bright.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:17 PM on January 20, 2019


And we just came inside after looking at a very red looking moon in the semi-rural NC skyline. Sweet! Cold. But sweet!
posted by kabong the wiser at 9:19 PM on January 20, 2019


I woke up half an hour earlier than usual here in Finland so I could see the lunar eclipse. Unfortunately the moon had just gone below the apartment building to my west, so I had to go out into the early dawn cold.

Helsinki was waking up, and it took me a while to see the moon. I found a pocket of darkness in a little park and stared at it for a while, until a craving for caffeine convinced to go back inside.

I wasn’t prepared for how eerie it would look, especially given how clear the stars were. The moon looked … well, it looked like there was an eclipse. But it also looked like a small cloud of pollution was obscuring it and nothing else. It was pleasantly spooky.
posted by Kattullus at 10:00 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


NMcCoy: Fenrir, btw

If I remember my Ragnarök correctly, it was a different giant wolf that eats the moon, and a third one that eats sun. If that seems like a lot of giant wolves, it bears to keep in mind that Old Norse mythology is basically this shirt writ large.
posted by Kattullus at 10:05 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


We've got a quarter moon now with a bit of white and pink around it, and no stars. Sweet!
July 16, 2019 is a partial lunar eclipse in the Midwest.
July 4, 2020... a partial lunar eclipse.
Nov. 29, 2020... a partial lunar eclipse.
May 26, 2021... yep, total lunar eclipse. Yeah! Looking forward to it, hope it doesn't rain that night.
Okay, that's a plan. Need to make some hot cocoa... see ya!
posted by TrishaU at 10:31 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


"Hey Google, who eats the moon?"

this lady
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:03 AM on January 21, 2019


No blood on this side of the world, but this evening's moonrise was pretty bloody spectacular nonetheless.
posted by flabdablet at 4:23 AM on January 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


If I remember my Ragnarök correctly, it was a different giant wolf that eats the moon, and a third one that eats sun.

Andy Riley:
A new sun goes over every day
There's a big pile of them on the other side of that hill
When they cool down people cut them into blocks and that's where we get margarine from
posted by flabdablet at 4:28 AM on January 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


It cleared off a little bit & I got a few decent pics, despite some intermittent thin high clouds.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:13 PM on January 21, 2019 [7 favorites]


I got this shot of it.

And it looks like there may have been an impact during the eclipse that was caught on more than one video. I hope they can confirm it and get photos from the LRO though I don't know how big/small something like this would be. (direct link to YT video. You can see the impact around 1h20m47s). Blink and you'll miss it.
posted by bondcliff at 9:04 AM on January 22, 2019 [3 favorites]


The Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive has put a few pics up:

2019 January 26: The Umbra of Earth
2019 January 25: Moon Struck
2019 January 24: Matterhorn, Moon, and Meteor
2019 January 22: Lunar Eclipse over Cologne Cathedral
2019 January 20: A Total Lunar Eclipse Video
2019 January 19: Total Lunar Eclipse at Moonset
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:53 PM on January 26, 2019 [3 favorites]


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