Was great clear skies for once in Vancouver, watched it with our binoculars. Nice experience won’t happen again for 18 years maybe 36 if its cloudy as usual.
Hi, Fraser. I have a stupid question. But here it goes: do all eclipses happen when it’s full moon? I’ve never seen an eclipse when the moon is gibbous or crescent, for example.
No, it's not a stupid question! It's a great observation! Yes, Moon eclipses happen always at Full Moon. Think now why! Keep reading for the answer... But thinking it is more enjoyable, I think :) So, an eclipse happens when all three things are aligned. A Moon eclipse happens when you got the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon all aligned one after the other. Since the Moon is on a slightly different plane than the earth's orbiting the sun (a difference of 5º), we don't have eclipses every month: the Moon can be a little higher or lower than the Earth's shadow. When the Moon is on the far side of Earth from the Sun, we see it fully illuminated, aka Full. On the other hand, a Sun eclipse always happens when the Moon is new and now you also know why. Also, many times when there's a sun eclipse somewhere, we also get a lunar eclipse some two weeks before or after SOMEWHERE in the world (so, yeah, you may not be able to watch any or both from your location and they may not be total but partial but they tend to come in pairs)
The Eclipse last night was great, I enjoyed seeing it. Now though is the bad joke time. Fraser are you made at the internet ???? You publicly Mooned it and us !!! OOOO no, are the Bogoblins from Zelda's Breath of The Wild going to re-spawn from the Blood Moon and attack us all?
What really happen was someone activated the infinite tsukuyomi an now everyone is living in a reality of drrams, even though it feels like normal, it's all a dream.