Eclipse Time!
Tomorrow morning, the part that comes after tonight, is when we’ll be getting our lunar eclipse! It’s, like, totally a total lunar eclipse.
Nasa Image Gallery
Credit and Copyright: Fred Espenak
Here’s a little graphic which shows what time you should be standing outside, staring at the moon (or lack of moon):
Here’s NASA’s official page for this lunar eclipse.
What’s the deal with lunar eclipses anyway? I can never keep it straight. Luckily, we have Mr. Eclipse to help us out!
“An eclipse of the Moon (or lunar eclipse) can only occur at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth’s shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped components, one nested inside the other. The outer or penumbral shadow is a zone where the Earth blocks part but not all of the Sun’s rays from reaching the Moon. In contrast, the inner or umbral shadow is a region where the Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.”
Since I don’t do 3D so well, here’s a picture that Mr. Eclipse made:
What do we see during a total lunar eclipse?
“While the Moon remains completely within Earth’s umbral shadow, indirect sunlight still manages to reach and illuminate it. However, this sunlight must first pass deep through the Earth’s atmosphere which filters out most of the blue colored light. The remaining light is a deep red or orange in color and is much dimmer than pure white sunlight. Earth’s atmosphere also bends or refracts some of this light so that a small fraction of it can reach and illuminate the Moon.”
Tonight/tomorrow morning’s eclipse is a rather long one - about an hour and a half of total eclipse.
Only those of us west of the Rockies will be able to see the entire eclipse, start to finish.
Ha ha.
Oh - feel free to stare away at lunar eclipses. You won’t burn your eyes out, at least not according to NASA and Mr. Eclipse.
lunar eclipse, eclipse, moon, total eclipse, NASA, August 28 2007, Mr. Eclipse
