Well, not that he personally is blotting out the sun

Obviously. He is blotting out the moon.

The cool story about this is the one about Columbus.

Look out the window between 8:45 and midnight.

The whole time?

3: especially if you're on the west coast.

2: Huh, that really happened. I thought Mark Twain made it up in A Connecticut Yankee...

It's -21 with the wind chill. But I'm going out there, and I'll let you know if I can see anything.

That there moon has a bite out of it for sure!

Oh this is cool. My eyes are so crappy though; I'm trying to take pictures and look at them. I'm going to get a tripod.

Aw, it's cloudy here.

I just spent several chilly minutes trying to take pictures with a tripod, but what I mostly have to show for it is blurry pictures. I think I need a telephoto lens and a modicum of photography know-how.

That is pretty nifty looking. Goodnight, moon... forever!

10: I just ran outside excitedly with my cell phone in hand, only to realize I was an idiot for thinking I'd get anything remotely resembling a lunar eclipse on a low-res camera phone. Still: looks really cool.

Hm, putting a digital camera up to an eyepiece of binoculars was none too successful either.

It's so fun! I forgot until I was halfway home and then I looked up and there it was. All purple-y brown-y reddish. Magic!

And then I got inside and there was a letter waiting from my uncle the astronomy buff. Such perfect timing.

Some advice on shooting the moon.

I grabbed a pair of binoculars. The moon during the eclipse is really cool because it isn't invisible. I can see details but the color is weird.

It's all red! BLOOD RED MOON! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!

I can see the whole moon, but some of it looks darker than the other part.

Sorry, to be specific, the left part is darker.

It looks great. I'm glad you told me! Otherwise I wouldn't have even looked out my window tonight!

16: OMG! It's like "Nightfall". Shit is going to get burnt down!

Civil disorder breaks out; cities are destroyed in massive fires and civilization--as previously known--collapses.

Yes! Yeeeees! Burn, primitive civilization! Buuuuuuurn.

Me, I'll be holed up in the observatory rumpus room.

cloudy in my area, which makes for an even neater effect.

Very cool. I got out the tripod, and now I can barely type because my hands are so cold. I learned a few new settings on my camera, though.

23: Me too! (Can barely type, frozen, learned about camera.) Batteries failed right away so used the lawn mower extension cord. I'm sorry I had to come in but I don't know if I can go back out there.

It was a gorgeous moonrise here and, contrary to the forecast, not overcast. Then, around 8:15... clouds! I was so bummed. Then, at 9:50 I looked out the window again, and gorgeous, clear skies, with whispy, atmospheric clouds. Iris & I watched the last bit of white go away. I explained that eclipses used to freak people out. She kept asking me to explain why; even though she identifies the moon as Artemis, she still didn't get why it would freak out Artemis-believers to see their goddess turn blood red.

Then I got to walk the dog and just stare upwards. Awesome.

It was suddenly clear though very cold here so we went out and watched for about twenty minutes. I'm still cold but it was great to see.

I saw the moon at several times tonight and it never looked red. Why does it sometimes look red?

Miraculously, totally clear here at the end of a cloudy day, but apparently not enough pollution in the air for good color. The girls were pretty excited, but when I told them about their first lunar eclipse, and my carrying them back and forth between the bedroom, where they could see the eclipse, and the library, where the TV was tuned to the Red Sox winning the World Series, they feigned indifference. The little wretches.

Oh that was an amazing eclipse. Hah! Now I'm all giddy. Thanks JMcQ!

27: As far as I understand it, the red during an eclipse is from the refracted light rays bent through the atmosphere (think of it as sunrise or sunset light). Basically, a lunar eclipse for us is a solar eclipse for the moon, but since unlike the moon we have an atmosphere the Moon gets bathed in the bent and scattered rays of light, the ground would be an awesome red ground if you were on the Moon tonight.

Looking this up I came across this great statement:

Unlike eclipses of the sun, which can damage viewers' unprotected eyes, lunar eclipses are safe to watch with the naked eye or binoculars.

27, 30: Guy on NPR had an awesome image for the red moon (and dude, Ned, you were like a mile or two from my house - how did you not see the red* moon I saw?): imagine you're on the moon, looking back at the earth, and you see every sunset and sunrise in the world simultaneously. All that red light refracts onto the moon's surface.

* Maybe sienna or burnt umber, but definitely reddish

I'll second JRoth on the dark red nature of the moon during tonight's eclipse as seen in the Greater P'burgh area.

Maybe the Gil Thorp artist will draw the relationship of the orbs in tomorrow's strip, that kind of perspective stuff seems to be his strength.

"It's all red! BLOOD RED MOON! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!"

That's: "Red Hour! Red Hour! Festival! Festival!

Then you scream and tear off your shirt, and run off into the crowd.

BLOOD MOON.

Courtesy of Gary. Well, not that he personally is blotting out the sun,

1. "Since the dawn of time, Gary Farber has yearned..."

2. I'm awaiting the plaintive comment that actually he blotted out the sun two weeks ago, and it would be nice to have some credit...

We came back from dinner to find the clouds gone and stood out in the driveway to watch the moon for a while. Very, very nice.

I posted some pictures at the Unfogged flickr pool, but nothing like the link in 34, which is so excellent. That was fun, I want another one tonight.

I'm so upset about this. I was outside and had been told about the eclipse and still forgot to look.

It was great - some ragged clouds over DC blew away just in time. Ranked up there with Comet Hale-Bopp in celestial wallop.

38: No worries, just mark December 21, 2010 on your calendar now. You'll be older and wiser.

Sadly, there was complete cloud cover in Austin and we didn't get even a glimpse. I eagerly await 2010.

"I eagerly await 2010."

It worries me. War with the Soviet Union looms.

On the plus side, after the dangerous part, two suns!