Anyone else looking at this? Amanda is drawing sketches of it for extra credit in her science class.

Pretty Neat. My son loves this stuff.

What I don't understand is how is this different from lunar cycles. Its the earth's shadow on the Moon Right?

It does look different

Lunar cycles are from the absence of sunlight. The bright portion is the part that's facing towards the sun and so it's the "lunar day" side. The dark portion is "lunar night;" the part facing away from the sun.

As you said, a lunar eclipse is caused by the earth's shadow; if you were standing on the day side of the moon right now, the earth would be blocking the sun.

We all went out and looked for a minute. There are several inches of snow on the ground and it's really cold out too, so we didn't stay long.

It is pretty interesting stuff. It makes me reflect a little on the wonders of the universe, and reminds me to be thankful that God took his time and put it all together correctly.

Thanks Kevin. That helped. Surprisingly now that Moon is completely in shadow, the dark parts appear brighter than when it was half in shadow.

My wife, son, and I just watched the eclipse down here in Tampa. When it became full, it had an dark orange tint and the lighting gave it a 3-D effect. If anyone is familiar with the big peach on I-85 at Gaffney, SC, the eclipsed moon looked eerily similar to that bizarre landmark. (No, I don't drink. )

The wife and I checked it out. It was cool, but a bit too cloudy to be able to fully appreciate it.

I've been out to see it every 45 minutes or so. Very cool.

Too cold to go out so we peeked through the windows. It was cloudy all evening so my daughter didn't get to see much. After she went to bed it cleared up and the fully eclipsed moon was crystal clear. But I couldn't wake my daughter up to see it.

The funny thing is the exact same thing happened to me when I was her age. "Why didn't you wake me up?" "Wake you up? We stood you on your head!"

Didn't even check it. It was cloudy (and I forgot ).

Years ago Dad and I built a model that showed a solar eclipse. It involved a box, a flashlight, and a cutout moon that pulled across the inside of the box. I had the idea (or anyway read about it), Dad figured out the best way to execute it.

The clouds parted over LI in time to catch most of the full eclipse. Awesome. It really is remarkable how the moon takes on a more spherical, 3-D appearance when it's in shadow.

I got to see much of it.

I hate it when the big sky dragon eats the moon like that. Makes me think the gods are angry at us.

You'd think eventually the big sky dragon would learn that the moon's just too cold to hold onto (and the sun's too hot) and give up. It must not have a very good memory.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55nTwg5NIPM[/youtube]

Or

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIaz6zBz1go[/youtube]

Hmmmm.....

kinda catchy.

Too many clouds, but we did see a wierd glow in the general area of the mood.