14 DAY TRIAL // Even if you're not a space geek, you've probably heard of the total lunar eclipse later today. In many parts of the world, the Moon will be completely covered by the Earth's shadow giving us a rare spectacle in the sky. The total eclipse won't be visible from everywhere, but even if you don't live on the right continent, you can still enjoy the show, albeit online.
Google and YouTube are partnering with Slooh Space Camera to give everyone a chance to see the total lunar eclipse in all of its glory regardless of where they live.
"Naturally, when we learned that part of the world will be treated to a rare 100-minute long total lunar eclipse starting at 11:20am PDT today, we were both excited and disappointed that this rare occasion wouldn’t be visible from our Mountain View campus," Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer and Technical Lead in Special Projects at Google, wrote.
But Google is working with Slooh, with which it already has a tight relationship, to offer users several ways of enjoying the eclipse.
"Slooh will host a live mission interface using Google App Engine that lets anyone not lucky enough to live in certain areas (South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) take part in this rare astronomical event," Gorelick added.
"It’s equipped with audio narrations from real-life astronomers so you can hear a firsthand, expert account of the event," he explained.
Google will be streaming the whole thing on its own YouTube channel as well, but you can also watch it inside Google Earth if you have the Sky layer enabled. You can download the KML file Google provided for this.
If you don't happen to be near a computer during the eclipse, don't fret, Google has you covered as well with the Slooh Space Camera Android app.