Technologies

How to watch the longest partial lunar eclipse of this century

Earth’s shadow will cover most of the moon Nov. 18-19, and it will take its sweet timing doing it.

It’s almost celestial showtime. There’s a partial lunar eclipse on tap for Nov. 18-19 and it’s notable for how long it will last. The Earth’s shadow will largely block the sun’s light from reaching the moon, tinging our lunar neighbor with darkness.

NASA statistics on lunar eclipses from 2001 through 2100 show this month’s partial eclipse will be the longest of the century with a duration of over 3 hours and 28 minutes. Compare that with the longest total eclipse of the century, which happened in 2018 and stretched for nearly an hour and 43 minutes.

The Holcomb Observatory in Indiana shared a handy graphic showing what to expect from the eclipse, which will cover most of the moon. «This will also be the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years,» the observatory tweeted.

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What a partial eclipse looks like

Lunar eclipses don’t have the same dramatic appearance as a solar eclipse where it looks like someone is carving a black hole out of the side of the sun.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon darkens and sometimes takes on a reddish color. For a partial eclipse, Earth’s shadow doesn’t completely cover the moon. Partial eclipses are still fantastic experiences.

«Partial lunar eclipses might not be quite as spectacular as total lunar eclipses — where the moon is completely covered in Earth’s shadow – but they occur more frequently,» NASA said in a skywatching update. «And that just means more opportunities to witness little changes in our solar system that sometimes occur right before our eyes.»

When to watch the lunar eclipse

The eclipse will be visible to a large area of the globe across the evening of Nov. 18 and into Nov. 19. Exact viewing times will depend on your location, but at least some of the eclipse will be visible in most of the Americas, Australia, and in parts of Europe and Asia. The US will be in a great position to catch the eclipse action.

Head over to Timeanddate.com and search for your location to get your times. If you want to watch the full process, you could be in for a long night. For example, the partial-eclipse phase will kick off at 12:18 a.m. MT on Nov. 19 for me in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and reach its maximum at about 2:02 a.m. I’ll probably aim to set an alarm for closer to maximum rather than stand out in the cold for hours.

How to watch the lunar eclipse from anywhere

You have online options for following the moon action. These video feeds are a good fallback if you encounter cloudy weather, or if you just don’t want to stay up late or get up early to watch the eclipse in person.

The Virtual Telescope Project will go live with coverage of the eclipse at 11 p.m. PT on Nov. 18 (7 a.m. UTC on Nov. 19). VTP is collaborating with astrophotographers from around the world along with offering live commentary from astrophysicist Gianluca Masi.

Timeanddate.com has arranged for its own livestream starting at 11 p.m. PT on Nov. 18.

Eclipses aren’t everyday occurrences on Earth, and they’re not always easily visible. While some viewers might have to contend with middle-of-the-night scheduling for this month’s celestial event, it’s worth taking a moment to marvel at how the moon, the sun and our planet are connected as residents of this solar system.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

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Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

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The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 24, #1649

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 24, No. 1,649.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky, with a double letter that could confuse players. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.