Did anyone stay up to watch the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox come in at 2am Wednesday morning? Me neither. Rumour has it nothing really happens: one moment it’s summer, the next, it’s fall. You’d think there’d be a few fireworks or at least a bell or something.
But enough of that; we have an eclipse to watch. Well, some of us. I will officially NOT be watching to lessen the chance of cloud cover, nor do I know, at the time I’m writing this, where I WON’T be, so I guess we’re on our own. Luckily, lunar eclipses are pretty straight forward.
This Sunday, September 27th, you’ll want to get your evening meal out of the way so you can be outdoors by 6:30ish to watch the beginning of the Total Lunar Eclipse. The only requirement is a good view to the east, preferably down to the horizon. Binoculars and something to sit on make things better, but all you really need is to remember it’s happening.
First, a brief eclipse shadow primer: the Earth’s shadow is a big, dark circle (the umbra) surrounded by a lighter ring (the penumbra). Picture a donut with a dark centre.
The eclipse begins at 6:11pm when the Moon first enters the penumbral portion of the shadow, but don’t rush outside in a panic yet; the Moon doesn’t rise until 6:32pm.
The Moon will already be partially eclipsed as it rises, but you won’t notice anything unusual as the surface is only slightly dimmed by the penumbral shadow. It isn’t until 7:07pm when the dark umbra begins to take a bite out of the Moon’s side. This is when you ‘should’ panic and rush outside.
The darkness will creep across the surface until 8:11, when totality occurs. The lit portion of the Moon winks out, and you’re left with a dark sphere coloured ‘muddy brown’ through dark red (known as the Blood Moon). How red depends on the amount of dust and cloud in our atmosphere at the time.
Nothing appears to change until 9:23pm when a sliver of light returns to the opposite limb of the Moon, an ever increasing crescent that will grow until the shadow disappears at 10:27. At this point, the show is essentially over although the penumbra won’t leave the Moon until 11:22.
The next Total Lunar Eclipse visible here will be in January of 2019, so take advantage of September evening temperatures to get the family out to enjoy what the universe has to offer from your own back yard.
