A rare Lunar Elipse tonight.

A rare lunar eclipse is happening tonight! I have been scrabbling around trying to get pictures all night to no avail.  Of course tonight is a cloudy night so my picutres are not so good.  Why so rare?  Because this lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year and the start of winter).  It has not happened in 456 years according to the experts and history (but I have seen some say it was only 372 years hmm I should research myself). A lunar eclipse is when the shadow of the earth is in direct position of the moon.  The moon will turn a blood read/orange because of this and you will see the moon disappearing during the process. I might have to put some pictures from the internet up too. :)  Here are some pictures from the night.  I will put up pictures once I find my cord to offload them from my canon camera.  lol  Here are some pictures from the internet of this years event: 

Here is a picture of what actually happened and times..  This is central time (im on pacific time, 1 hour behind)

Photo of the Dec. 20, 2010  total lunar eclipse from Cochranville, Pa. taken by Kevin R. Witman, using a Meade LX50 10" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a Canon XS DSLR camera.

Interesting facts I found out later after researching the history of lunar eclipses: 

1.  The lunar eclipse with a winter solstice has not happened since 1638.

2.  The next lunar eclipse coinciding with winter soltice will not happen again until 2094.  WOW that would make me well...not alive I guess unless I live to be 120 years old or so.  lol

I will post my small tiny pictures of the moon when I get my cord.  

Here is some pictures I got off my camera of the eclipse.

 This pictures was at around 11:15 pm.