March 21, 2007
Last Night's Eclipse Earthshine Event
Torontoist is looking for some answers about last night's lunar eclipse.
What eclipse, you say? If the photo above is any proof, last night, between 8:00 and 9:30, looking up to the sky in the West, you would have been greeted with the tiny sliver of moon smiling back at you. But a quick review of yesterday's and today's major media outlets reveals a big nada about the event. Indeed, even a search of Google News for "eclipse toronto" will remind you about a big eclipse that happened on March 3 -- one that was totally invisible due to high cloud cover -- but nothing of last night's celestial party.
It was a great night for starwatchers. The sky was so clear last night that dozens of major constellations were easily visible, something that doesn't happen often in Toronto's light pollution haze.
So we put out a question to all astronomy-minded readers: What can you tell us about last night's eclipse? And while we're pretty sure that bright "star" in the above photo is actually a planet, anyone know which one?
UPDATE: OK, so last night's phenomena wasn't an eclipse -- it was instead an occurance of Earthshine. The moon was lit up in an eclipse-like way because of light being reflected off the Earth. Leonardo Da Vinci was apparently very mystified by the effect, and so were we. Maybe it wasn't an eclipse, but it made for beautiful viewing. And that bright planet in the sky was Venus. (Thanks to Drew for the information!)
|
Isn't that just a new moon?
http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon/
I was out in the country and got a stunning view of this last night. I was also wondering why I'd never heard anything about it.
The star? I'm guessing Venus.
It's earthshine.
The bright part of moon is light up by the sunshine, and is being reflected back to earth, which is what we normally see.
But when it's dark, we can see light on the dark part of the moon which is light emitted from us, and the reflection of light from other stars off earth
and that's venus.
It's always the brightest thing in the sky other than the moon and sun.
Paige: A new moon is vertically oriented, while this eclipse was oriented horizontally. As well, the amount of moon that was visible changed dramatically over the course of the event.
What you saw was simply the lunar phase between New Moon and 1st Quarter. This is part of the moon's monthly progression between Full Moon (100% of disc visible)to New Moon (disc in total darkness due to the earth's shadow). The next Full Moon is April 2; the next New Moon April 17. The clear conditions may have made this appear more dramatic, but it was not an eclipse. Lunar & solar eclipses are not random events, and can be forecast on a completely predictable schedule (just like phases of the moon).
Gary, you can't be serious about the new moon and Venus. Lunar eclipses only happen on full moons; it hasn't even been a full moon month since the last eclipse.
Try checking out SpaceWeather.com before attempting to post astronomy news; they've got it down pretty pat.
You're right about the planet; it is Venus, which is very close in the sky to the Moon right now; today (Wed) it'll be below the moon. (The planets and moon all lie more or less along one arc in the sky, the `ecliptic', reflecting the fact that the solar system more or less all lies in one plane.) The moon is just a waxing crescent moon, which I always think is very pretty.
Skytonight has a good `what's going on in the sky this week' page with is worth the occasional check.
Quick plug, too; the Astro department at U of T, and DDO, pretty regularly; next up is an April 6 public astronomy night on St. George campus.
No, that was no eclipse, just a really nice crescent moon close to Venus. As drew mentioned, you could see the dark portion by earthshine, but the moon was NOT in earth's shadow so it was not an eclipse. The next lunar eclipse will be on August 28th, but will be only barely visible from Toronto as the eclipse will start as the sun is rising.
PS, the moon will be even closer to Venus tonight, if the weather cooperates.
Huh...earthshine. Ya learn somethin' new every day. I wish I could have seen that with my own eyes (or binoculars).
Great website >> badastronomy.com
Read about how on the equinox you can stand eggs on one end...exactly like you can every other day of the year...
Flickr has some fantastic shots of the phenomenon.
no probs,
thanks to you for having an awesome blog.
we have just seen and photographed a horizontal crescent moon from Bradenton Beach in Florida at 21:30 EST. Have never seen horizontal before. THe bright star (Venus?) is at 7 oclock relative to the moon
I noticed this too and thought it was gorgeous. Venus? Awesome!
saw it too...just kept stairing at that bright light waiting for it to move. definitely not a plane. i can finally say i saw venus.