Tomorrows Lunar Eclipse Will Rival The Autumn Leaves UPDATED October 7, 2014 By WeatherBug Sr. Meteorologist, John Bateman Enlarge If viewing the changing of the leaves is part of your autumn routine, this year you can add the October 8th total lunar eclipse to your to-do list. What`s more, the Moon will appear to match the fall foliage, as it glows an eerie reddish hue during its totality. First, a little background. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon`s orbit around the Earth falls into the Earth`s shadow. The Moon has no source of self-illumination and all of the moonlight we see is actually the light of the Sun reflecting off of it. For an eclipse to happen, the Earth must be in between the Sun and Moon, while all three are in alignment. That means a lunar eclipse can only happen around the time of a full Moon, when the Sun and Moon are in opposition of each other. If the alignment is slightly off, your part of the world will see either a partial or penumbral lunar eclipse. If they are more aligned, you will see a rarer total lunar eclipse, like we expect this month. As for its color, the Moon generally is not blackened out during a total eclipse - it actually appears as a rusty red or orange color due to the way that light scatters through the Earth`s atmosphere. Occasionally there can also be tinges of gray, turquoise, or even dark brown due to high altitude gases, dust, or ash from recent volcanic eruptions. The color and brightness of the Moon are also affected by how deep into the Earth`s shadow - called the umbra - it passes. If the Moon travels through the heart of the shadow, as it will this time around, it will appear to be dimmer and a deeper red. Fortunately for sky watchers, this month`s eclipse will be visible across almost all of North America on Wednesday, October 8, 2014. Along the U.S. East Coast, the Moon will start competing with the dawn glow on the morning of the 8th as it sinks low in the western sky and enters a partial eclipse at 5:15 a.m. EDT and then goes in a total eclipse at 6:25 a.m. EDT. On the West Coast, the partial eclipse starts at 2:15 a.m. PDT and enters totality at 3:25 a.m. PDT, with the Moon still high in the night sky. No matter where you live in the U.S. however, the total eclipse will only last for about a 60-minute window. So if the weather and your schedule permit, try to get out and see this celestial show early Wednesday morning, because if you miss this one, you will have to wait until April 2015 for the next total lunar eclipse, which will only be visible from western North America. And if watching the leaves change color and the Moon turn red is still not enough for your viewing pleasure, there will also be a partial solar eclipse visible from most of North America coming October 23, 2014. Keep your eyes to the sky this month! Be sure to keep WeatherBug active to receive the latest weather in your neighborhood and get the latest updates anywhere on Twitter. --- Story image: A blood-red lunar eclipse over Asuncion, Paraguay. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) What do you think of this story? Click here for comments or suggestions.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 06:49:36 +0000
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