There is a Total Lunar Eclipse tonight!But will we see it?

I had a pretty crazy day today, how 'bout you? 

Whenever things seem crazy, I think of a friend who I worked with a few years ago, who always said, "Ahh, it must be a full moon tonight."  We laughed because it seemed like some months had a full moon three or four times... but no, really there is only ONE full moon in a month.  OK, sometimes there are two full moons in a month - but that's pretty unusual.

Anyway, with all the craziness, I just knew it was a full moon.  What I didn't know until the end of the day is that it will also be an eclipse tonight!

I found this photo at MSNBC, and it was credited to Akira Fujii / Sky & Telescope

Well, there's going to be an eclipse.  It's the last total lunar eclipse until April 15, 2014.  But unfortunately, we probably won't see much of it.   It's going to be mostly visible to those who are west of us.  Alaska is going to get to see the whole thing.  For us, the moon is going to set right as it is entering the "penumbra" - which I think is only the first part of the shadow.  It's not going to seem like much at all.

From the article on MSNBC, I think that something is supposed to just barely start at 3:33 AM, Pacific Time.  When it's 3:33 AM in California, it will be 6:33 AM here in Iselin.  Since 7:07AM EST is when the moon is supposed to set, that seems to make sense.  The total eclipse is supposed to be at 6:06 AM in California, which is 9:06 here, by which time the moon will have cleared out of our sky.


Plus?  It's going to be mostly cloudy, according the weather report I looked at.

So I don't think I'm getting up too early to watch it.

But - you CAN watch it on line.  That MSNBC article I mentioned?  It's HERE - and it's a very interesting article, for science geeks like me.  And at the end of the article, there are a few possibilities for watching the eclipse on a webcast.