World Prepares for Total Lunar Eclipse Today
Associated Press — LOS ANGELES (AP) – For astronomy buffs, Thursday night’s eclipse will be the Super Bowl of celestial shows.
Moonwatchers across North America will be treated to the lunar eclipse, and astronomy groups around the country are planning star parties, experts said.
Weather permitting, the total eclipse will be the first visible across the United States in three years. It will also be visible in western Europe and southern Africa.
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon passes into the Earth’s shadow and is blocked from the sun’s rays that normally illuminate it. At the height of the eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon will align in space.
Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view with the naked eye. Astronomers recommend even a modest telescope or binoculars to enhance the view.
The total eclipse, which begins when the Moon is fully inside the umbra, lasts from 11:14 p.m. EDT to 12:07 a.m. EDT on May 16. The Moon will again be in partial eclipse until it leaves the umbra at 1:17 a.m. EDT. The final penumbral phase of the eclipse ends when the Moon makes last contact with the penumbra at 2:15 a.m. EDT.
Even though Earth’s shadow is larger than the Moon, the Moon is still visible when it is totally eclipsed, making it a grand spectacle easily noticeable to anyone with a clear sky and an unobstructed view.
Earth’s atmosphere filters out the Sun’s blue light by scattering it, and it refracts some of the Sun’s red and yellow light, which strikes the Moon and often casts our neighboring world in an eerie, orangish glow.
“What’s really neat about total lunar eclipses is that every one is different. The color of the Moon varies from eclipse to eclipse, depending on how much dust and other aerosols have been recently injected into the atmosphere by volcanic eruptions and forest fires,” says Robert Naeye, editor of Mercury magazine, which is published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP).
“Based on the depth of the eclipse and the fact that we haven’t had any major volcanic eruptions recently, I’d guess the color will be orange to bright red,” adds astronomer and eclipse authority Fred Espenak of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
An unobstructed line of sight will be critical. At the time the eclipse starts for observers in the United States and Canada, the Moon will be very low in the southeastern sky, so people should find a location where their line of sight is not blocked by buildings, trees, or mountains.
The Moon will rise higher as the eclipse unfolds, and will settle in the south-southwestern skies as the eclipse ends in eastern North America.
This eclipse will not be visible in Alaska or extreme northwestern Canada, and observers in Hawaii will only catch its final stages. Observers in Europe, the Middle East, and most of Africa will be able to watch the early stages of the eclipse, but the Moon will set before the eclipse has run its course.
“The May 15-16 lunar eclipse is the first really good lunar eclipse visible over North America since January 21, 2000,” says noted astronomer and author David H. Levy, who is a member of the ASP’s Board of Directors. The next total lunar eclipse visible in North America will occur on November 9, 2003.
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