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Coming Feb. 20: Total Eclipse of the Moon
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by gaffri | February 12, 2008 at 11:17 pm
2000 views | 22 Recommendations | 7 comments
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Hopefully the weather permits a nice view of this phenomenon on the day
Mark Wednesday, Feb. 20, on your calendar as "Lunar Eclipse Night," for if the weather is fair you should have no difficulty observing a total eclipse of the moon.
The eclipse will be visible wherever the moon is above the horizon during the time frame that the eclipse is taking place. As it turns out, North and South America will turned toward the moon and will be in excellent position for this sky show.
Europe, Africa and a part of western Asia will also be able to see the eclipse, although for these regions the event will take place in hours just before sunrise on the morning of Feb. 21.
All told, given clear skies, about three billion potential eclipse viewers will be able to partake in the spectacle of the full moon becoming completely immersed in the Earth's shadow.
This will be the third total lunar eclipse within the past year. The previous two favored different parts of North America, but this one will be readily visible from start-to-finish across much of the continent, weather permitting.
The total phase will last 51-minutes and begins at 10:01 p.m. EST (7:01 p.m. PST).
Because some of the sunlight striking the Earth is diffused and scattered by our atmosphere, the Earth's shadow is not completely dark. Typically there are coppery red and orange hues cast over the moon at and near totality from sunlight refracted from our atmosphere around the edge of the Earth, giving the moon the appearance of an eerie glowing ball.
As a bonus, during the eclipse the moon will be situated, in our sky, near the planet Saturn and the bright bluish star Regulus in the constellation of Leo. The effect will be to create a uniquely beautiful triangle in the sky consisting of the totally eclipsed moon, a bright naked-eye planet and one of the 21 brightest stars in the sky.
Editor's Note: SPACE.com will provide a complete eclipse viewer's guide Feb. 15.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
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ifindtrends
San Diego, California, United States
gaffri
København V, Denmark
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
at 23:20 on February 12th, 2008
Thanks for this story, gaffri, it's good stuff. I hope to be able to get a good view of the eclipse myself that night.
at 02:05 on February 13th, 2008
I certainly plan on finding a good spot in Copenhagen and try to take some pictures, and of course i will be posting those afterwards.
I encourage other nowpublic members to udate this story with some pictures if they get lucky!
at 02:24 on February 13th, 2008
Just an update to ones that are thinking of watching the lunar eclipse from the scandinavian countries.
The excact time will be between 04.01 - 04.51 on the 21'th and the eclipse will be total at around 4.26 (morning)
I'm having trouble figuring out how this time changes when lattitude and longitude changes. Like if this timeframe goes for all euopean countries.
Maybe some nowpublic members can elaborate on that?
at 19:16 on February 19th, 2008
I think this is an important story and would benefit from other NowPublic contributors working on it. I've flagged it as News Wanted and invite others in relevant locations to look for more evidence.
NowPublic members - send in photos and observations tomorrow!
at 00:46 on February 20th, 2008
Hopefully we will get a clear view. Here is a table from Nasa's website for North America.
Wow. i just found this as well. They are going to have live webcam shots from several locations for those stuck at work etc. The url looks weird but it's actually a huge trusted site about Astronomy.7http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/maaneclips2008/leclips2008.html
From Nasa
February's lunar eclipse is well-placed for North and
South America as well as Europe and Africa. Observers along North
America's west coast miss the early stages of the partial eclipse
because it begins before moon rise. Alaskans in Anchorage and Fairbanks
experience moonrise during totality but bright evening twilight will
make it difficult for sourdoughs to view the event. Western Europe and
northwest Africa also see the entire eclipse. Further to the east (east
Africa and central Asia), the Moon sets before the eclipse ends. None
of the eclipse is visible from eastern Asia or Australia.
Preceeding and following the eclipse are hour-long penumbral phases but these are faint and quite difficult to see.
The more interesting and photogenic partial and total phases always take center stage to the penumbral phases.
Lunar Eclipse Diagrams
The following diagrams show the Moon's path through Earth's shadows (higher resolution versions of the above figure).
The times of major stages of the eclipse are given for a number of time zones in North America.
Please choose the diagram for your own time zone. Each diagram is a GIF file with a size of about 100k.
Some people may be puzzled that the Moon's motion is
from west to east (right to left) in these diagrams, instead of its
daily east to west (left to right) motion in the sky.
However, the Moon actually moves WEST to EAST (right to left in the
Northern Hemisphere) with respect to the Earth's shadow and the stars.
I'll try to get some photos down here in San Diego.
at 04:15 on February 20th, 2008
gaffri, I like this story. It's good stuff. In the future, though, could you not copy and paste entire copyrighted articles? We have a discussion on that in the Newsroom. Thanks.
I'm excited. Except that we have a winter storm incoming, so I may have to watch on the web.
at 03:28 on February 29th, 2008
Hi all
Thanks for updating the story. Unfortunately we did not have a clear sky in Denmark on that day, so i had to rely on the www too :-)