The Eclipses of Maker Faire

Science Space
The Eclipses of Maker Faire
Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash. (Oct. 27, 2004) - The moon turns red and orange during a total lunar eclipse. With the Earth passing between the sun and the moon, the only light hitting the full moon was from the home planet's sunrises and sunsets, resulting in the orange and red hue. The next total lunar eclipse won't be till March 2007. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Scott Taylor (RELEASED)
Total lunar eclipse from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, on Oct. 27, 2004. (Credit: U.S. Navy/Scott Taylor)

Tonight the Moon will enter Earth’s shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse that will be visible as attendees and Makers stream away from the sixth annual World Maker Faire here in New York.

Beginning at 8:11 p.m., reaching maximum extent just over two hours later at 10:47 p.m., and lasting 5 hours and 11 minutes in total, the eclipse will turn the Moon red and orange. This reddened coloration is due to the Earth’s atmosphere, which acts like a lens, bending red sunlight into the planet’s shadow and towards the Moon, and scattering out blue light. In other words, the Moon will be red for the same reason sunrises and sunsets are red.

Tonight’s moon is also a so-called “supermoon.” This occurs when when a full, or new, moon coincides with the Moon nearing its minimum distance to the Earth (orbital perigee). But despite what you might have heard, it won’t cause earthquakes and volcanos. You’ll also not notice any difference in size or brightness by eye; tonight’s full moon will look pretty much like every other full moon you’ve ever seen. Well, apart from the glorious red color you’ll see during the eclipse.

However, tonight’s lunar eclipse isn’t the first eclipse visible from a Maker Faire. Back in 2012 we enjoyed a partial solar eclipse, with more than 90% of the Sun’s disc obscured, at the faire in the Bay Area.

A view of the 2012 partial solar eclipse through the tiny gaps between the leaves on the trees at Maker Faire Bay Area.
A view of the 2012 partial solar eclipse through tree leaves at Maker Faire Bay Area. The gaps are acting as pinhole lenses projecting the eclipse onto the wall. (Credit: Alasdair Allan)

Many of the attendees got a great view of the eclipse through the tiny gaps between tree leaves. The gaps acted as pinhole lenses, projecting crescent-shaped likenesses of the eclipsed Sun onto surfaces.

However, our video team was also on the job, and they built an exceedingly unconventional camera rig to observe and live stream the event.

“We live streamed the eclipse from the faire with welding glass in front of a 500mm lens on a camera with a 2× crop factor — which means the lens effectively had a 1m focal length…” —Nat Heckathorn

Now, anyone want to spend the time to sit down and figure out the next time we’ll see a solar or a lunar eclipse from a maker faire? Maybe our guide to astronomical wonders can help you out!

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Alasdair Allan is a scientist, author, hacker and tinkerer, who is spending a lot of his time thinking about the Internet of Things. In the past he has mesh networked the Moscone Center, caused a U.S. Senate hearing, and contributed to the detection of what was—at the time—the most distant object yet discovered.

View more articles by Alasdair Allan

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