There’s a lunar eclipse this Saturday night. It starts around 9:30pm and lasts until past 1am, by which time I will be tucked up in bed. The total eclipse bit of the eclipse thingy (stop me if I get too technical) is from 22:45 to 1:10. There’s a public lecture at the University of Glamorgan on Saturday evening for those interested in astronomising, followed by a chance to see the event unfold through telescopes and binoculars.
The picture shows the various stages of the total lunar eclipse that was visible over Europe on the night of 4 May 2004. It’s taken from Earth Science Picture of the Day website.
You learn the most amazing things at the University of Glamorgan’s astronomy classes. Fact of the week - there are hundreds of moons in the solar system (160 or so according to Wikipedia and this number is probably rising as we speak). Four of them are bigger than our Moon (Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Io).
By the way, Sidereus Nuncius is the name of Galileo’s treatise published in 1610 which contained his observations of the Moon and even the moons of Jupiter. It translates as “Starry Messenger”.
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