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Lunar Eclipse tonight

John reminded me that there’s a lunar eclipse tonight. If the skies stay as clear as they are right now, I may climb up to the roof of my apartment building and see if I can get any decent pictures.

In the meantime, I present this handy-dandy guide to eclipse terminology.

An eclipse of the moon occurs when the sun passes between the earth and the moon.

An eclipse of the sun occurs when the shadow of the earth falls on the sun.

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p align=”center”> An eclipse of the earth occurs when you put your hands over your eyes.

(Images from Tom Weller’s seminal 1985 technical opus, Science Made Stupid)

iTunes “Fascination Street (Extended)” by Cure, The from the album Mixed Up (1990, 8:48).

Posted in Humor. See also: Let’s do the time warp again… | Lunar eclipse, Seattle, WA | Pictures from Mars | Bush’s military timeline | Deficit Attention Disorder .

By Michael Hanscom
October 27, 2004

7 Responses

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  1. mike whybark said
    on October 27, 2004

    Genius!

  2. indieb0i said
    on October 28, 2004

    That’s just too damn funny.

    I saw the eclipse last night - very beautiful and mysterious. I still have to download my attempts at photos - yours look nice.

  3. romm said
    on October 28, 2004

    Those diagrams are completely wrong!!!

    In a MOON eclipse, the EARTH is between the Sun and the Moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse

    In a SUN eclipse, it’s the MOON the one which is between the Earth and the Sun. http://www.hartrao.ac.za/other/eclipse2002/ecl_cause.html

    The label in diagram #2 is specially pure nonsense: The light from MOON (!!) is BLOCKED by the Earth, casting a SHADOW in the SUN ?????

  4. Michael Hanscom said
    on October 29, 2004

    (laughs) That’s exactly the point, romm. ;) Just a little silliness to break up the day. The images are scanned in from a humor book I picked up years ago (that’s now, sadly, out of print).

  5. romm said
    on October 29, 2004

    Mmm… maybe I have been working a lot. Need to go out and take some fresh air…

    sigh

Continuing the Discussion

  1. John P. Hoke's Asylum linked to this post on October 27, 2004

    Full lunar eclipse tonight

    Strange things happen on the Full Moon. The possiblity of a Total Lunar Eclipse is one, the Red Sox possibly sweeping the World Series is another … We wont get another total lunar eclipse here in the continental United States…

  2. mike.whybark.com linked to this post on October 27, 2004

    Playing off the ecliptic

    In eclecticism: Lunar Eclipse tonight, Michael Hanscom thoughtfully provides some borrowed diagrams and definitions concerning tonight’s lunar eclipse. I recommend looking closely at the diagrams and evaluating them with a critical eye. They are unique…

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