[technossomy]

There was a lunar eclipse yesterday across the north-western hemisphere and some of the readership on this forum may have seen it. From my vantage point there were a few clouds, but the duration of the spectacle made it worthwhile watching. I gave it some thought whether I like lunar eclipses better than solar eclipses and here are some of my reasons why I prefer lunar eclipses:
- lunar eclipses are slower than solar eclipses and the spectator gets more to see and a better sense of the sizes of celestial bodies
- lunar eclipses tend to be more colorful than solar eclipses
- lunar eclipses take place under relatively rare circumstances whereas solar eclipses are a persistent phenomenon, although not always visible from earth

[stinkoman]

i do think they hav more color, but i have yet to see a solar eclipse, and the next lunar is in 2010, so 2 years, isnt that long when considering the siz of these things.

[carlosponti]

i missed out because we had cloudy weather

[fingal]

I missed it because I was in bed. It happened between 1-3 am in the UK and it was freezing outside!

[Farmer Mike]

I missed this one because I was at work (again).

I've seen a couple of lunar and a couple of solar eclipses. Lunar eclipses are spectacular as technossomy said, but solar eclipses are impressive too.

In a solar eclipse, everything grows darker, it feels cooler and everything goes quiet. You have this feeling of 'Wow, something big just happened. What's next?'

No wonder eclipses scared the bejeebers out of primitive peoples who didn't understand them.

[fingal]

Originally Posted by Farmer Mike

In a solar eclipse, everything grows darker, it feels cooler and everything goes quiet. You have this feeling of 'Wow, something big just happened. What's next?'

No wonder eclipses scared the bejeebers out of primitive peoples who didn't understand them.

That's very true. The last big solar eclipse I witnessed was several years ago by the coast. The waves on the sea seemed to grow calm, it went cooler, birds went off to roost and I had just the feeling you described - a sense of stillness which was almost overwhelming.

[elija]

I have only experienced one solar eclipse and I can only describe it as
eerie. All work stopped as everyone went to watch.

[Vergil83]

Originally Posted by carlosponti

i missed out because we had cloudy weather

ditto here

[jayd512]

Like FarmerMike, I was at work... but I made it outside on a quick break to catch it for a few minutes. It was really close to totality, too. Awesome sight.
In the same boat as stinkoman, too, in that I've naver seen a solar eclipse.