1 post tagged “lunar eclipse”
In about three hours, a lunar eclipse will (begin to) be visible from some parts of the planet.
For the astro-savvy (or astro-curious), a blurb from NASA:
The eclipse occurs at the ascending node of Luna's orbit in southern Aquarius. Since the Moon is 2.6 days shy of perigee, it will appear 8% larger (= 1.2 arc-minutes) than it was during March's eclipse. The Moon's trajectory takes it deep into the southern umbral shadow, resulting in a total eclipse that lasts 90 minutes. At mid-totality the Moon's centre passes just 12.8 arc-minutes south of the shadow axis. This places the Moon's northern limb only 3.4 arc-minutes north of the axis while the southern limb is 15.4 arc-minutes from the umbra's southern edge.
Since different parts of the Moon will probe radically different portions of Earth's umbral shadow, a large variation in shadow brightness can be expected. As a consequence of this geometry, the southern half of the totally eclipsed Moon will appear considerably brighter than the northern half. Observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at mid-totality (see Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness).
The penumbral phase of August's eclipse begins at about 07:54 UT, but most observers will not be able to visually detect the shadow until about 08:30 UT. A timetable for the major phases of the eclipse is listed below.
Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 07:53:39 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 08:51:16 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 09:52:22 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 10:37:22 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 11:22:24 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 12:23:30 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 13:21:01 UT
Fortunately, I'm at a location where I'll have a great view of the eclipse. Unfortunately, I don't have my camera, tripod, or even binoculars. I trust that other, more responsible folks will provide plenty of photo-documentation.
