Today I Love Teaching

Astrodyke linked to a great article about the total lunar eclipse. Among other things, it explains why the moon looks red during the eclipse.

I could not help myself, so I sent an e-mail to students in my last semester's general education science course. In this class we talked about many many different things - but one of them was sky color during sunsets.

Hi former [cool physchembio gened] students!

This article explains why the moon looks red in a total lunar eclipse (See the section "Red Light in the Dark"):

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/15357796.html

(And, if you are getting this note in real time - the eclipse looks pretty cool right now!)

- Prof. Twice

And I received back:

I was talking to [another student] earlier and said "why the heck is it red if the Earth is between the moon and the sun blocking the light?" Lol, now I know the answer. Thank you!

Hope the semester is going well,

-A. Student

In another nice episode of perfect timing in teaching, our seminar speaker (a guest I invited, but from a totally different sub-field) spoke about a phenomenon I covered only 6 hours earlier in class. Gotta love it when that happens.

On the not-so-great side, due to the total eclipse of the moon and coming of age in the eighties, I now have the song Total Eclipse of the Heart stuck in my head. And now perhaps you do too. Sorry.