Less than a year after North
America was treated to a total lunar eclipse, another one will take place on
the Wednesday, Oct. 27.
Almost everyone in the Americas
and Western Europe will have a beautiful view of this eclipse. The Moon will
be positioned well up in a dark, evening sky as viewed from most of the United
States and Canada.
Along the immediate West
Coast the first partial stage of the eclipse will get under way just minutes
after the Moon has risen. But by late twilight even Westerners will have a fine
view of the totally eclipsed Moon, probably glowing dimly like a reddish ember
low in the eastern sky.
Across much of Alaska, the
eclipse will already be underway when the Moon comes up; over southwest Alaska,
the Moon will rise totally eclipsed, appearing like a weird, mottled, dim ball
among the twilight stars. For Hawaiians, moonrise comes just after the end of
totality, with the Moon ascending with its gradual emergence from the shadow
readily visible.
Easy to watch
It is easy to view this
celestial spectacle.
Unlike an eclipse of the
Sun, which requires special viewing precautions in order to avoid eye damage,
an eclipse of the Moon is perfectly safe to watch. All you'll need are your
eyes, but binoculars or a telescope will give a much nicer view.
Totality will last somewhat
longer than average, as eclipses go. The Moon will track through the northern
portion of the Earth's total shadow, called the umbra, creating a total shadow
on the Moon for 1 hour and 22 minutes.
Unless airborne volcanic
aerosols or other atmospheric effects influence its appearance, the Moon's disk
should appear relatively bright, even when in shadow and especially right around
the beginning and end of totality. The upper part of the Moon will likely appear
brightest and glowing a ruddy or coppery hue, while the lower half of the Moon
should look grayer or chocolate in color.
The eclipse will actually
begin when the Moon enters the faint outer portion, or penumbra, of the Earth's
shadow more than an hour before it begins moving into the umbra. The penumbra,
however, is all but invisible to the eye until the Moon becomes deeply immersed
in it. Sharp-eyed viewers may get their first glimpse of the penumbra as a faint
"smudge" on the left part of the Moon's disk at or around 8:48 p.m. EDT or 6:48
p.m. MDT.
Main event
Below is a timeline, for
Eastern Daylight Time. In the Central Time Zone, subtract one hour from these
times; in the Mountain Time Zone, two hours, and for the Pacific Time Zone,
three hours.
- 9:14 p.m.: Moon enters
Earth's dark umbral shadow
- 10:23 p.m.: Totality
begins
- 11:04 p.m.: Mid-eclipse
- 11:45 p.m.: Totality
ends
- 12:54 a.m. (Oct. 28):
Moon leaves the umbra
For Europe and Africa, the
mid-point of this eclipse occurs roughly between midnight and dawn on the morning
of Oct. 28 and as such the Moon will still be well placed in the western sky.
At the moment of mid-totality (3:04 GMT), the Moon will stand directly overhead
from a point in the Atlantic Ocean roughly several hundred miles to the northeast
of the coast of Suriname.
Interestingly, this will
be fourth total lunar eclipse dating back to May 15, 2003. Four successive lunar
eclipses can all be total ones, each eclipse coming at intervals of just under
six months apart. Such an unusual lunar cycle is called a tetrad.
The
Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835-1910) discovered that during
a period of about three centuries tetrads can occur rather frequently; then
in the next three hundred years tetrads never occur at all.
"Presently we are living
in a period where tetrads take place, while no tetrads at all occurred at the
time Louis XIV was king of France," says the well-known Belgian eclipse calculator
Jean Meeus.
After this month's eclipse,
there will be no other total lunar eclipses until March 3, 2007.
More Eclipse Information
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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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