Take a break from politics for an hour or so, and check out the total eclipse of the moon tonight, starting at about 8:40 eastern time.
It will be visible from the Rocky Mountains to the east coast.
This is truly one of the more exciting things that you can do that doesn't involve sex or politics. Human beings for tens of thousands of years..unless you're Mike Huckabee and his followers..have used the overhead sky as a way of understanding and connecting with life beyond them. Lunar eclipses like tonight's will give you pause.
Find a dark place. Look UP.
Connect with the ...universe beyond
(And besides, Barack Obama advertises on this page!)
A total eclipse of the moon tonight is expected to delight skywatchers across the United States and much of the world.
It will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2010.
The easy-to-watch event will play out in several stages as Earth's shadow blocks sunlight from shining on the moon. Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible from all locations in the United States, according to NASA. Along the Oregon and northern California coasts, the moon will rise during the early stages of the eclipse, however.
When to watch
Eclipses occur only at full moon when the sun, Earth and moon are in a perfect line. Because the moon's orbit around Earth is not perfectly aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, eclipses do not occur at every full moon.
The moon will enter Earth's umbral shadow (the full shadow) at 8:43 p.m. ET (that's 7:43 p.m. Central, 6:43 p.m. Mountain and 5:43 p.m. Pacific) on Wednesday, Feb. 20. It will appear as though an ever-larger bite is being taken out of the moon.
Some 78 minutes later, the moon will slip into full eclipse. About 51 minutes later, a bright scallop will appear as the moon starts emerging. It will be completely out of the umbral shadow at 9:09 p.m. Pacific time, which is 12:09 a.m. ET on Thursday morning