I was alerted by a friend about this, and thought I’d pass it along in case y’all would be interested — it should be pretty fantastic to watch!
Tonight, there will be a total lunar eclipse visible across all of North America at 3:17 am EST, during which the moon will turn red as it passes behind the Earth (read the Wiki entry here for the science)! Apparently this will be only the 2nd time that a total lunar eclipse has coincided with the winter solstice (the shortest day in the year) in 2000 years…pretty cool! And the last time a total lunar eclipse happened was back in February 2008.
Here’s what it will look like:
But don’t take my word for it…check it out yourself at 3:17 am EST on December 21, 2010! :)
Happy stargazing!