Upcoming Total Lunar Eclipse, December 20, 2010

Maybe it's too early to be writing about it, but December's lunar eclipse has been on my mind a lot lately. I have seen parts of total eclipses before, the 27 OCT 2004 eclipse (the night the Red Sox won the World Series, for you baseball fans), and the 3 MAR 2007 eclipse. I wasn't an astronomer at those times, just a little curious about our Moon.


At the time of the 21 FEB 2008 eclipse I was a student in Mike Appelhans's Astronomy 264 course at Purdue North Central. That class was when I fully rediscovered my love for space and astronomy. I was excited to view the eclipse, and possibly report to the class about it, but Valparaiso was dumped with nearly a foot of lake effect snow. It was snowing over an inch per hour during most of the eclipse time, so I didn't see any of it.


There is no guarantee that I won't have another blizzard to contend with next month. Assuming good weather, however, I want to make the most of this total lunar eclipse, since there won't be another until 14 APR 2014. I've read Sky & Telescope's article in the December issue, and was looking at the following websites:


http://www.shadowandsubstance.com/


http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2010.html#LE2010Dec21T


http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHres/LEcrater.htmlhttp://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHres/LEcrater.html


More from the pages of December's Sky & Telescope, here are ways to make useful science observations during the eclipse.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/15772912.html 


http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/eclipseblog/?p=24



I like the idea of crater timings, even if I don't get any scientifically useful data. My recent observations of lunar occultations, and events of the Galilean Moons were fun for me because they had a purpose, even though I wasn't greatly successful at them. Of course I'll try to time the four contact points of total eclipse. All of these observations will require concentration, and a minimum of distractions.


It's a late eclipse, with partial phase not beginning until after midnight Central Standard Time, but I'm curious to know what my fellow sidewalk astronomers on the West Coast would do. Are you going to have a private viewing? Alone, or with other astronomers? Or are you going to set up telescopes and invite the public or passersby to see? I would like join fellow astronomers in viewing the eclipse, but I think even if it were earlier, I wouldn't be interested in a sidewalk session. Maybe that sounds selfish, but I have spent many hours in recent months with my telescopes available for total strangers to view the Moon at nearly all phases, the Sun, every planet out to Uranus, an asteroid, stellar creation and death, our neighboring galaxy, and even orbiting spacecraft. Whenever I'm conducting sidewalk sessions, or star parties at Adler Planetarium, people always ask,"Is there something special going on tonight?" One of my usual replies is, "No, unless you believe that something special happens every night." I don't think it would be too much to ask to save this "special" event for myself and a few close friends.


Does anybody have any advice? What are your plans for the eclipse? Do you have great stories of the 2004 or 2007 (or earlier) eclipses? (Sorry, I don't really want to hear how perfect your sky was in 2008, while I was shoveling snow every hour just to keep up with the storm). Well, maybe you can tell me about 2008...