(Press-News.org) With frigid temperatures already blanketing much of the United States, the arrival of the winter solstice on December 21 may not be an occasion many people feel like celebrating. But a dazzling total lunar eclipse to start the day might just raise a few chilled spirits.
Early in the morning on December 21 a total lunar eclipse will be visible to sky watchers across North America (for observers in western states the eclipse actually begins late in the evening of December 20), Greenland and Iceland. Viewers in Western Europe will be able to see the beginning stages of the eclipse before moonset, and in western Asia the later stages of the eclipse will be visible after moonrise.
From beginning to end, the eclipse will last about three hours and twenty-eight minutes. For observers on the east coast of the U.S. the eclipse lasts from 1:33am EST through 5:01 a.m. EST. Viewers on the west coast will be able to tune in a bit earlier. For them the eclipse begins at 10:33 p.m. PST on December 20 and lasts until 2:01am PST on Dec. 21. Totality, the time when Earth's shadow completely covers the moon, will last a lengthy 72 minutes.
While it is merely a coincidence that the eclipse falls on the same date as this year's winter solstice, for eclipse watchers this means that the moon will appear very high in the night sky, as the solstice marks the time when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun's rays and casting a shadow on the moon. As the moon moves deeper and deeper into the Earth's shadow, the moon changes color before your very eyes, turning from gray to an orange or deep shade of red.
The moon takes on this new color because indirect sunlight is still able to pass through Earth's atmosphere and cast a glow on the moon. Our atmosphere filters out most of the blue colored light, leaving the red and orange hues that we see during a lunar eclipse. Extra particles in the atmosphere, from say a recent volcanic eruption, will cause the moon to appear a darker shade of red.
Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are perfectly safe to view without any special glasses or equipment. All you need is you own two eyes. So take this opportunity to stay up late and watch this stunning celestial phenomenon high in the night sky. It will be the last chance for sky watchers in the continental U.S. to see a total lunar eclipse until April 15, 2014.
INFORMATION:
A total lunar eclipse and winter solstice coincide on Dec. 21
A busy day on the celestial calendar
2010-12-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NASA's LRO creating unprecedented topographic map of moon
2010-12-18
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is allowing researchers to create the most precise and complete map to date of the moon's complex, heavily cratered landscape.
"This dataset is being used to make digital elevation and terrain maps that will be a fundamental reference for future scientific and human exploration missions to the moon," said Dr. Gregory Neumann of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "After about one year taking data, we already have nearly 3 billion data points from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter on board the LRO spacecraft, with near-uniform ...
NASA satellite tracks soaking System 91S in western Australia
2010-12-18
NASA's Aqua satellite captured a series of images from its Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument over the last two days and saw the low pressure area known as System 91S make landfall in Australia. System 91S may not have become a tropical depression, but it's dropping heavy rainfall in Western Australia.
NASA's AIRS infrared instrument showed System 91S's center making landfall on Dec. 16 at 0647 UTC (1:47 a.m. EST) near the town of Carnavon in Western Australia. At that time, there was a large area of strong thunderstorms around the center of circulation, ...
New Article On OffTheGridNews.com Points to Some Challenging Questions; is Outrage Over WikiLeaks Revelations Misguided?
2010-12-18
The controversy surrounding whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks along with its creator Julian Assange continues to gain momentum as liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans have joined together in one voice to condemn the most recent leaks that Senator Diane Feinstein has described as "a serious breach of national security and could be used to severely harm the United States and its worldwide interests."
If you're looking to score popularity points in Washington now is the time to jump on the anti-Assange bandwagon and condemn the Aussie for his complicity in weakening ...
Louisiana Plastic Surgeons Caution on Laser Liposuction
2010-12-18
The Louisiana plastic surgeons of The Wall Center for Plastic Surgery (www.wallcenter.com) note a surge in the number of patients who have turned to them for corrective surgery after undergoing laser liposuction from plastic surgeons and unqualified physicians alike. While liposuction has gained acceptance and popularity with a constant stream of technological advances since its inception in the late 1970s, not all treatments and providers will be able to deliver the results patients seek.
"Many doctors are expanding into services they were never trained to perform, ...
Park West Gallery EPIC Retrospective Features Acclaimed Artists and Rare Works of Art
2010-12-18
Park West Gallery, now in its 42nd year as a leading fine art dealer, recently curated a landmark retrospective featuring never-before-seen artwork by four world-renowned artists -- Yaacov Agam, Robert Kipniss, Csaba Markus and Igor Medvedev. The retrospective was unveiled before one hundred Park West Gallery VIP collectors aboard the Norwegian EPIC cruise ship, during its December 4-11, 2010 sailing. Original paintings, one-of-a-kind drawings and limited-edition graphic works were released from the archives and offered for sale.
Hosted aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's ...
'Chief Outsiders' Fractional CMO Firm Expands from Florida to New York; Three Executives Added to Meet Growth- and Mid-Sized Business' Demand
2010-12-18
Chief Outsiders, a Houston-based company that provides executive-level Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) to businesses on a fractional basis, has expanded from Florida to New York to meet market demand of growth and mid-sized companies. Joseph P. Grace, Robert J. Donaldson and Robert G. Derr, senior marketing executives and business growth leaders in the areas of health information and products, technology, analytical instrumentation, software and financial services, have joined the Chief Outsiders team.
"As Chief Outsiders CMOs, these senior marketing executives will ...
Book Winter Tyres Early to Avoid Excessive Costs and Lack of Availability, Advises Top UK Comparison Website
2010-12-18
Carrentals.co.uk, the UK's leading price comparison website is advising all winter holiday makers ensure that winter tyres and snow chains are included in their car hire deal when booking in advance to ensure the best prices and utmost safety.
Winter tyres and snow chains are usually charged in addition to vehicle rental by most of the car hire companies and problems often occur because many car hirers at ski destinations assume that they will be included in the deal. This means that car rental companies can face a lack of availability and skiers may find that last ...
DirectRooms.com - Sharm El Sheikh Conference on Child Health in January 2011
2010-12-18
The Childhood Health Care Best Practice and Quality Assurance Conference has been scheduled to take place from the 25th to 28th January. The amount of prospective conference speakers and participants may result in a high demand of hotel in Sharm El Sheikh.
Speakers at the conference will update their peers with any new developments in treating common children's ailments such as measles, chickenpox, the flu, fevers and constipation. Diet experts will give advice relating to food intake that will try and cut down on the wave of teenagers with obesity, as well as regimes ...
AdoreStudio Integrates Into the Games Developers' Market
2010-12-18
AdoreStudio is a fast-growing game developer with highly placed objectives. The company has just published their website www.AdoreGames.com, however, a new design and a wider range of freshly-developed games which will possibly be free are going to bring a bunch of useful options for the game lovers.
AdoreStudio has entered the market with the main principle that whatever game is being played, it must be enjoyable for the user. Thus the company has sorted out the games which possess the following characteristics: user-friendly interface and high quality. These characteristics ...
"How to Shoot a Reportage" is Now Available
2010-12-18
Milan/Paris-based photographer and writer Enzo Dal Verme (he has shot for Vanity Fair, l'Uomo Vogue, Marie Claire, Grazia, Elle, Panorama, etc.) has decided to reveal some of his shooting tricks for an inside look at the world of reportages. His unique manual is now available to the general public.
What's behind the power of a reportage? After spending over a decade traveling all around the world capturing the essence of moments with his camera, photographer Enzo Dal Verme felt it was time to reveal some tricks of the trade.
The brand new manual covers a variety ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Scrumped fruit key to chimpanzee life and a major force of human evolution
Scientists discover new quantum state at the intersection of exotic materials
Healthy food systems: Microbial map reveals countless hidden connections between our food, health, and planet
Microbiome breakthrough: Gut bacterium may hold key to future treatments for widespread chronic diseases
Turning biodiversity upside down: Conservation maps miss fungal hotspots by focusing on plants
AI at the core: philanthropy fuels EMBL’s strategy
Synthetic torpor has potential to redefine medicine
Are you eligible for a clinical trial? ChatGPT can find out
New treatment could reduce brain damage from stroke, study in mice shows
4,000-year-old teeth record the earliest traces of people chewing psychoactive betel nuts
Efficient solar harvesting even in high humidity
Heavy drinking raises the risk of undesired pregnancy; cannabis use does not
New study shows young adults who use high strength cannabis do not ‘titrate’ to less risky levels of use
Black hole vibes
Actual distance travelled by migrating whales drastically underestimated
The eagles resistant to poisonous toads
Cyberstalking growing at faster rate than other forms of stalking
CPADS: a web tool for comprehensive pancancer analysis of drug sensitivity
Several healthy diet patterns are associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes regardless of ethnicity – shows meta-analysis of more than 800,000 people
Liver fibrosis to cancer: scientists map path to block deadly transition
Microbiota boost immunotherapy? A meta-analysis dives into fecal microbiota transplantation and immune checkpoint inhibitors
Cancer's double agents: Fibroblasts both help and hinder immunotherapy
Unveiling large multimodal models in pulmonary CT: A comparative assessment of generative AI performance in lung cancer diagnostics
AI can fake peer reviews and escape detection, study finds
T cell senescence in the tumor microenvironment
Simple solution to save lives globally: Low-cost ‘SimpleSilo’ offers hope for babies with gastroschisis
Curbing roadway fatalities hinges on shared responsibility and rethinking safety
Beta-HPV can directly cause skin cancer in immunocompromised people
Efforts underway to end race-based assessments of lung function
CAR-T cell therapy linked to increased risk of secondary primary malignancies globally
[Press-News.org] A total lunar eclipse and winter solstice coincide on Dec. 21A busy day on the celestial calendar