Thailand forum

Hi, a late note for sky-watchers and other romantics in Thailand:

Thailand and Asia should have a good view of a perfect eclipse of the moon on Saturday night, December 10. Here in Isan the skies have been windy and very clear for several nights now. In our small village there will be singing monks and singing kites to add to the moody atmosphere.

Here are the eclipse times for Thailand (or adjust to your timezone - all of Asia will be able to see the eclipse if there's a clear sky):

Tonight the moon will rise in Thailand at 5.40pm, about 10 minutes before the sun sets.

About an hour later, from 6.33pm, the moon's trailing (western) edge will start to change colour to yellow and red, as the full moon falls out of the sun's direct light and deeper into the shadow of the earth.

The entire surface of the moon will turn dark red for 51 minutes during the peak of the eclipse, between 9.06pm and 9:57pm Thailand time.

The moon emerges completely from the earth's shadow half an hour after midnight, Sunday morning 0:31am.

The details of the eclipse in Universal Time (GMT) can be found at this NASA (PDF) document:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2011-Fig06.pdf

The Thailand times (Satuday 10 Dec 2011) for the eclipse phases P1 to P4 on the NASA document are:

Moonrise= 17:40
Sunset= 17:51

P1= 18:33
U1= 19:45
U2 = 21:06
U3= 21:57
U4= 23:17
P4= 00:30 (Sunday morning)

Sunrise 06:31
Moonset 06:53

There's a Nasa video about this lunar eclipse here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MujkxjrMA2Y&feature=uploademail