Watch the Sunrise and Moonrise
Posted by pauld | Filed under Total Solar Eclipse: Live from China
On July 21, 2008 the full moon rose at sunset. The next morning the sun rose over one hundred lunar diameters away. The full moon rises near where the sun rose 6 months ago, so in the summer when the sun rises at its furthest north along the horizon, the full moon rises at its furthest south. Observers keeping track of the position of the rising sun and moon note that the positions of the moonrise and sunrise have been racing toward each other and that on August 1, 2008 the sun and moon will rise at nearly the same position.
On August 1, 2008 the moon will be new and will rise eclipsing the sun near Alut, Northwest Territories Canada. The moon will set eclipsing the sun near Xian China.
In the late afternoon of August 1, I will be with the Exploratorium eclipse team watching the moon totally eclipse the sun at 4:08 PM China time (11:08 PM Universal time) The moon will eclipse the sun for 2 minutes. We will send live images of the eclipse out to the world.
Ancient peoples marked the positions of the rising and setting sun and moon, the marked positions are preserved in monuments such as Stonehenge and other woodhenges. I suspect that the observers from long ago knew more about the rising and setting positions than most modern day people.
If you live near the path of this eclipse do not miss a chance to see the sun rendezvous with the moon.
If you cannot see the eclipse live, watch the video on the Exploratorium website or watch from the Exploratorium sim in Second Life.
No matter where you are don’t miss a chance to watch sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset.
