Skip to main content

Total Lunar Eclipse

         On 21st December 2010 last eclipse of the year which is Total Lunar Eclipse would occur. The eclipse will be visible in the region covering Europe, West Africa, the Americas, the Pacific Ocean, eastern Australia, the Philippines and eastern and northern Asia. Whereas this eclipse is not visible in India.

Timings As Per Indian Standard Time (IST):

         Broadly speaking the Eclipse begins at 10.58 a.m. IST passing through various phases and ends at 4. 36 p.m. IST. However the Umbral phase is generally considered as actual eclipse for various ceremonies by general public. i.e. Moon enters the Umbra (dark part of earth shadow ) at 12.02 p.m IST and leaves umbra at 3.32 p.m IST. Importantly Moon enters totality phase at 1.10 p.m noon and ends at 2.24 p.m.

         We can watch the lunar eclipse live with the Slooh Telescope in Google Sky! Follow these steps:

1. Open up Google Earth (download it if you don't have it yet!http://goo.gl/iGb66).

2. Change to Sky View by clicking 'View' --> Explore --> Sky...

3. Click the tab for 'Current Sky Events.'

4. Check the box for the 'Slooh Space Camera.'

5. Type "Moon" in the search tab now. 

         Do drop in your comments about the Lunar Eclipse! Enjoy!

Comments

Recommended for You

Is Google cheating?

               I found this piece of interesting fact, accidently while browsing the internet. Google shows different maps for India, China and USA. Confused hun! Well don’t be…Just read on… In Indian version of Google Maps, you can see Arunachal Pradesh and eastern part of Jammu and Kashmir as integral part of India. In US version of Google Maps, you can see Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed region. In the Chinese version of the Google Maps, you can see Arunachal Pradesh and JnK as not a part of India.                 Many people complained this issue to Google. A Google employee responded : “ We do show different versions of this border, because we required to by law. Indian law requires us to show it one way, and the Chinese law requires us to show it another way . If we can legally do so, we strive to present borders in a neutral and objective manner, which is why the US version avoids taking either side and simply labels the border as disputed. ”   

Custom online cards from Google Maps...

            Share a message of holiday cheer with custom online cards from Google Maps this New Year! Think Green, Go Green this New Year. Save paper and that too with a difference! This new year you can send your friends, family and loved ones an e-card which is out of the box!             You can choose from 10 different online holiday cards and add your personal message. Now, after reading this you will think what's so different here! The surprise is yet to unfold...You can include specific directions, a Street view image or your favorite place on the inside of the card!             So now planning your New Year party will become easier. You can send an e-card with directions from your friend's place to the place where you are hosting your New Year party! Won't that be fun!             You can send your personalized Google Maps New Year Cards from here !             Warm wishes for a great holiday season and wish you a Happy Mapping Year...

Map Loading...

    The blank web page seems so boring and dull when the map is still loading. You will come across such a situation quite often where you will be having a slow internet connection! We cannot do anything about the slow internet connection, but we can surely avoid the dull blank web-page by using a simple trick. We can place a "loading" image at the center of the web page so that the page doesn't look blank! An image like this:             The following code will show you how this can be done and here it is!     As you all can see the code is very very simple and the output will look as seen in the results section above. The image below shows the loading stage of the map.       Do let me know what you think about the examples shared here! Do leave your comments here! Till the next example, happy mapping!

GIS Technology to identify all properties in BBMP Limits

          The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has for the last two years, been in the process of conducting a massive exercise to map the 13.87 lakh properties in the 198 wards in the city. Geographical Information System (GIS) has proven to be an effective tool for analysing and displaying thematic maps of all the roads for proper evaluation and correction of zones.            As of now, 11 lakh properties have come under the tax net. The aim of this programme, which is perhaps the first such exercise being conducted in the country on such a large scale, covering 800 square km, is to bring all properties under the tax net and ensure that the BBMP has accurate information pertaining to the properties’ dimension, built-up area, land use and classification. The process of validation of GIS maps will be completed in January 2011.           The process uses satellite digital maps of the BBMP area to generate a vector map from the information obtained. These high r

A Giant called Google...

    Wondering what you will be reading in this post today and what is "Google Giant"! Well, I was working on a simple project a couple of months back and that is the time when I was amazed and by the size of data that Google Maps servers might be having! As most of the readers (developers and enthusiast included) would know or might have noticed, Google maps are rendered by stitching small images together. You must have observed this on quite a number of occasions, when you see grey tiles when you have a slow internet connection in particular. It takes time for the images or tiles as we call them to be displayed.     Let us try and estimate what could be the size of the Google Maps data! Before proceeding, let's make a few assumptions and considerations. 1. Let's consider the Google Street View maps only. 2. The zoom level that is considered for the calculations is 21 - the max zoom level allowed on Google Maps API. 3. All the numbers are just an estimate a