Finally a good reason to stay awake on Sunday night: a total lunar eclipse.
Moon observers in the United States may experience a celestial miracle as the earth’s shadow covers the moon during the best viewing hours of the night of May 15. Those on the east coast can observe our natural satellite, which begins to turn an ominous copper-red color around 11:00 a.m. Eastern time during one of the longest lunar eclipses in recent memory.
“For almost all of North America, this is a great opportunity to watch,” said Madhulika Guhatakurta, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Where and when can I watch the lunar eclipse?
The eclipse will be visible to much of the world, including America, much of Europe and Africa, and parts of the Pacific. Joseph Rao, an associate astronomer at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, estimates that about 2.7 billion people must be able to capture at least part of the eclipse.
Not long after sunset, the left side of the moon should begin to look dark. But the main event begins around 22:28 Eastern time, when the moon enters the central shadow of the Earth, known as the dark. At that time, it will start to look as if something has bitten off the moon.
When the moon is about three-quarters of the way in the voice, it should start to glow reddish, “like your electrical range just when the coils start to glow,” Mr. Rao said.
At 23:29 the moon will be in the deepest part of the earth’s shadow and the total eclipse will begin in earnest. The eclipse will reach its peak shortly after midnight, around 12:12 in the morning, and will remain copper-colored until after 1:56 in the morning. The moon will leave the dungeon at 1:56 a.m., regaining its pearly hue at the start of the work week.
Spectators farther west will not have to strain to stay up late, with the most stunning view of the red moon starting around 8:29 pm Pacific time, peaking just before 9:12 pm, and the total eclipse ends by 9:54 p.m. Hawaii observers will be able to see the rising moon as a reddish ball, Mr Rao said, while those in Europe and Africa will see the opposite effect, watching the moon fall below the horizon during a total eclipse.
The oddities of celestial mechanics mean that the aggregate – when the moon is blood red and in the deepest shadow – lasts longer than average, approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes, giving sky watchers enough opportunities to enjoy the event. This makes it the longest total lunar eclipse seen in much of the United States since August 1989, Mr Rao said.
For people in New York, forecasters put the chance of rain at 40 percent on Sunday night and suggest that the conditions may be mostly cloudy a few hours before the total eclipse.
If you’re clouded by bad weather or you’re not on the path to an eclipse, NASA will broadcast the event live on its website. The Slooh online telescope will also host another live stream.
What do I need to watch the eclipse?
No expensive equipment is needed to see the unearthly spectacle. If the weather is clear, just look up and find the moon at night. The darker sky is better for capturing the subtleties of the moon’s color change, but even those in cities will have beautiful views of the eclipse.
“Since this is happening at such a convenient time, I would suggest that you try to observe it from beginning to end,” said Dr. Guhatakurta.
The binoculars or telescope in the backyard will help bring out the red color, she added. Viewers with access to such instruments should be able to observe the Earth’s shadow passing over the craters, valleys and mountains of the Moon and see that these characteristics acquire this alley hue.
NASA’s Goddard Center is hosting maps and visualizations of both the moon during the eclipse and where the eclipse will be observed on Earth, so Dr. Guhatakurta invited those interested to learn more about the event in advance and learn more. for lunar topography.
How does the lunar eclipse happen again?
Lunar eclipses occur when our planet stands between its two main celestial satellites, the sun and the moon. Moonglow is actually reflected sunlight, so the moon’s surface gradually darkens as the moon falls into the Earth’s long shadow.
“When the moon enters the shadow of the Earth, it must darken and disappear,” Mr Rao said. “Instead, it changes that eerie copper or reddish color.”
This is because the Earth’s atmosphere lenses sunlight around the ends of our planet. Everything other than the longest and reddest wavelengths is filtered and the combined brilliance of all the sunrises and sunsets of the world is projected onto the otherwise gray moon.
If you stood on the moon, you would see the big black illuminated plate on Earth coming in front of the sun, Mr. Rao said. Together, our planet will look like a giant dark circle surrounded by a brilliant red ring, and the lunar surface around you will turn into different shades of red, orange and brown.
The NASA Surveyor III probe captured such a miracle during the lunar eclipse of April 24, 1967, but the resulting images are black and white and extremely low resolution. But with many new missions targeting the lunar orbit and lunar surface in the coming years, perhaps some of the Earth’s robotic explorers will capture such a scene in color and high resolution.
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