Partial Lunar Eclipse Tonight, Starting 8:19pm Sydney Time

m0rnin all,

There will be a partial lunar eclipse tonight, starting 8:19pm local time, and ending 10:59pm local Sydney time.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/24jun_lunarecl...

Full Moon is at 9:30pm Sydney time.

If there is too much cloud in your region during this time, dont fret! You can still observe this phenomenon via simulation!

Both Stellarium & Celestia simulate the eclipses. The moon will be located within the constellation…umm.. the guy with the bow?

http://www.stellarium.org/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/files/

Windows 7 users note that you may have issues running the latest version of Celestia. If you encounter problems with version 1.6.0, give 1.5.1 a try.

Stellarium is great for finding where things are supposed to be at a given time. Celestia is a little better for getting the feel for the dynamics and scales of stellar phenomenon, because it allows you to view things not only from the surface of the earth or the moon, but any point that you choose.

So if you want to witness the shadow of the earth and its atmosphere cast over the surface of the moon, get out there tonight and take a look. Or if the weather sucks, try the planetarium software.