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An unusual set of celestial circumstances comes
together Sunday for skywatchers in Europe, Africa
and the Americas, where a total lunar eclipse may
be glimpsed, offering a view of a large, red Moon.
The full Moon will appear bigger than normal
because it is closer to the Earth — about 222,000
miles (358,000 kilometers) away — which earns it
the nickname “super Moon.”
Other monikers include a “Wolf Moon,” a
traditional way of coining an eclipse in the month
of January, and a “Blood Moon” because of its
rusty, red color. Hence the name for this year’s
event: a “super blood wolf Moon.”
At the peak of the eclipse, and if the night skies
are clear of clouds, Venus and Jupiter should be
shining brightly in the night sky.
– What time? –
– Monday at 0334 GMT, or 4:34 in the morning in
France or 10:34 pm in Quebec, the partial eclipse
will begin as the Moon passes into Earth’s
shadow.
– In the United States, the edge of the Moon will
begin to fall into shadow at about 7:33 pm on the
West Coast and 10:33 pm on the East Coast,
according to NASA.
– From 0441 to 0543 GMT: for an hour and two
minutes, the Moon will be entirely in Earth’s
shadow. But the Moon will not be invisible: it will
appear tinted in hues of red, orange and pink.
– At 0651 GMT, the Moon will be completely out
of the Earth’s shadow.
– Where is it visible from? –
Europe and West Africa will have a good view of
the eclipse, but not all the way until the end.
Eastern Europe will see the beginning of totality,
but not the end. North Africa and West Africa
should see the end of totality, but will miss the
final phases of the eclipse.
The entire eclipse should be visible in North
America, Central America and South America, as
well as France, Belgium and Spain.
That is, as long as the view is not obscured by
clouds.
If conditions are cloudy where you are, NASA
recommends checking out a live stream of the
eclipse at www.timeanddate.com/live/
– Why red? –
During a lunar eclipse, the Moon appears red
because the light of the Sun no longer directly
illuminates it, since Earth is passing in between
the Moon and Sun.
“The color is due to Rayleigh scattering — where
the Sun’s blue light is scattered off molecules in
Earth’s atmosphere — which also happens at
sunsets,” explained the Royal Astronomical
Society of Britain.
“The Sun’s red light is scattered much less by air,
and is bent by Earth’s atmosphere in a process
called refraction, traveling all the way through it
to light up the Moon’s surface.”
– Last eclipse this decade –
Total or partial lunar eclipses happen at least
twice a year on average, Florent Deleflie, an
astronomer at the Observatory of Paris-PSL told
AFP. It’s just that they are not visible everywhere.
It’s a rare event when a total lunar eclipse is
visible on so many parts of the Earth’s land
mass, as is the case Monday.
Europeans last saw a total lunar eclipse in July
2018. The next chance for a glimpse at a lunar
eclipse will be in 2022, but the entire continent
won’t be able to see the totality of a lunar
eclipse again until 2029.
North Americans may get their next glimpse of a
blood moon in 2021 along the West coast and
2022 on the East coast.
Source:
guardian.ng/news/total-lunar-eclipse-set-
to-woo-skywatchers-sunday-night-to-monday