{"id":3200,"date":"2010-12-21T08:48:24","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T15:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=3200"},"modified":"2010-12-21T08:48:24","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T15:48:24","slug":"clear-skies-over-thornton-provide-prime-lunar-eclipse-viewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/astronomy\/clear-skies-over-thornton-provide-prime-lunar-eclipse-viewing\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear skies over Thornton provide prime lunar eclipse viewing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The total lunar eclipse as seen from Thornton. See more images in the slideshow below. (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Late yesterday afternoon the weather didn’t look like it would cooperate and allow viewing of the rare winter solstice lunar eclipse but in the end Mother Nature was generous.\u00a0 Some thin, high clouds cast a bit of a ‘fog’ over the start of the event but those cleared and the view was extraordinary.<\/p>\n

According to Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory<\/a>, the last time a total lunar eclipse coincided with the winter solstice was on December 21, 1638.\u00a0 That is the only other time since\u00a0the birth of Christ\u00a0that the conjunction of the two events occurred.\u00a0 For those that live long enough, it won’t be a 372 year wait for\u00a0the next one however.\u00a0 Chester says December 21, 2094 affords the next chance.<\/p>\n

From start to finish the event lasted about 3 1\/2 hours with totality lasting a period of 72 minutes.\u00a0 At its peak at 1:17am MST the moon was cast in a burnt orange color as the shadow of the Earth enveloped it.<\/p>\n

Lunar eclipses unto themselves are not particularly rare events.\u00a0 Two total lunar eclipses will occur in 2011, one in June and another in December.\u00a0 North America sky watchers however will not be able to see the June event and only part of the December one.\u00a0 The next total lunar eclipse visible in North America occurs on April 15, 2014.<\/p>\n

Be sure to <\/strong>follow us on Twitter<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>like us on Facebook<\/strong><\/a> to stay up to date with all the latest with Thornton\u2019s weather.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Late yesterday afternoon the weather didn’t look like it would cooperate and allow viewing of the rare winter solstice lunar eclipse but in the end Mother Nature was generous.\u00a0 Some thin, high clouds cast a bit of a ‘fog’ over the start of the event but those cleared and the view was extraordinary. According to … Continue reading Clear skies over Thornton provide prime lunar eclipse viewing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[473,474,475],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3201,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions\/3201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}