Lunar Eclipse Saturday (if you live far enough east)
Tell your friends and family back east!
Unless you live near the west coast, you get to see the upcoming total eclipse of the moon immediately after sunset on Saturday, March 3. (Europeans and Africans can see the whole show!) As the sun goes down (around 6pm Eastern near Hamilton, earlier further east and north, later further west and south), you look in the opposite direction (east), and you will see - if the sky is clear - that the moon, which should be full, is in the shadow of the earth. In fact, it will likely be a dim red due to all the collected and refracted sunrises and sunsets of the whole world. (If you're in the central time zone, sunset will be somewhere between 5:30 Central (eastern end of the time zone) and 6:30 (western end), and the moon may already be emerging from the shadow. Read on.)
At 6:58pm Eastern (5:58pm Central) the moon will begin to leave the earth's full shadow, and leaves the full shadow by 8:11pm Eastern (7:11pm Central). During this period of 73 minutes, the curved shadow of the earth on the moon should be visible. This is the single best direct evidence most people can have that the earth is actually round. I often engage in an exercise in my class where I challenge my students to explain why they think the earth is round, without having to rely on other agencies or people to support their position.
All the details are here (note that Eastern time is UT minus 5 hours, Central is UT-6). The moon begins to enter the earth's full shadow at 4:30pm EST (before it rises) and completes its departure at 8:11pm EST.
Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, in The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, suggest that the apparent sizes of the sun and moon in the sky were designed to be close to one another so that eclipses would be visible and so that we could discover more about the universe.
Enjoy and give God the glory!
Unless you live near the west coast, you get to see the upcoming total eclipse of the moon immediately after sunset on Saturday, March 3. (Europeans and Africans can see the whole show!) As the sun goes down (around 6pm Eastern near Hamilton, earlier further east and north, later further west and south), you look in the opposite direction (east), and you will see - if the sky is clear - that the moon, which should be full, is in the shadow of the earth. In fact, it will likely be a dim red due to all the collected and refracted sunrises and sunsets of the whole world. (If you're in the central time zone, sunset will be somewhere between 5:30 Central (eastern end of the time zone) and 6:30 (western end), and the moon may already be emerging from the shadow. Read on.)
At 6:58pm Eastern (5:58pm Central) the moon will begin to leave the earth's full shadow, and leaves the full shadow by 8:11pm Eastern (7:11pm Central). During this period of 73 minutes, the curved shadow of the earth on the moon should be visible. This is the single best direct evidence most people can have that the earth is actually round. I often engage in an exercise in my class where I challenge my students to explain why they think the earth is round, without having to rely on other agencies or people to support their position.
All the details are here (note that Eastern time is UT minus 5 hours, Central is UT-6). The moon begins to enter the earth's full shadow at 4:30pm EST (before it rises) and completes its departure at 8:11pm EST.
Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, in The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, suggest that the apparent sizes of the sun and moon in the sky were designed to be close to one another so that eclipses would be visible and so that we could discover more about the universe.
Enjoy and give God the glory!
posted by Valerie or Arnold Sikkema at 12:39 p.m.
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