Total Lunar Eclipse Archives

October 7, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

REAL Images of Eclipses Seen From Space

That ‘amazing astro-shot that isn’t’ is making the rounds of ‘ye ole web again.

You know the one. “See an Amazing Image of an Eclipse… From SPACE!!!” screams the breathless headline, with the all-too-perfect image of totality over the limb of the Earth, with the Milky Way thrown in behind it for good measure.

As the old saying goes, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Sure, the pic is a fake, and it’s been debunked many, many times since it was first released into the wild a few years back. But never let reality get in the way of a good viral meme. As eclipse season 2 of 2 gets underway tonight with a total lunar eclipse followed by a partial solar eclipse on October 23rd both visible from North America, the image is once again making its rounds. But there’s a long history of authentic captures of eclipses from space that are just as compelling. We’ve compiled just such a roll call of real images of eclipses seen from space:

A partial solar eclipse as captured by SDO. Credit: NASA/SDO.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory:

Launched in 2010, The Solar Dynamics Observatory or SDO is NASA’s premier orbiting solar observatory. But unlike Sun-staring satellites based in low Earth orbit, SDO’s geosynchronous orbit assures that it tends to see a cycle of partial solar eclipses twice a year, roughly around the equinoxes. And like many satellites, SDO also passes into the Earth’s shadow as well, offering unique views of a solar eclipse by the limb of the Earth from its vantage point.

Hinode:

A joint mission between NASA and JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) launched in 2006, Hinode observes the Sun from low Earth orbit. As a consequence, it nearly has a similar vantage point as terrestrial viewers and frequently nabs passages of the Moon as solar eclipses occur. Such events, however, are fleeting; moving at about eight kilometres per second, such eclipses last only seconds in duration!

Catching the passage of the Moon during a brief partial eclipse. Credit: ESA.

Proba-2:

Like Hinode, Proba-2 is the European Space Agency’s flagship solar observing spacecraft based in low Earth orbit. It also catches sight of the occasional solar eclipse, and these fleeting passages of the Moon in front of the Earth happen in quick multiple cycles. Recent images from Proba-2 are available online.

Eclipses from the ISS:

The International Space Station isn’t equipped to observe the Sun per se, but astronauts and cosmonauts aboard have managed to catch views of solar eclipses in an unusual way, as the umbra of the Moon crosses the surface of the Earth. Such a view also takes the motion of the ISS in low Earth orbit into account. Cosmonauts aboard the late Mir space station also caught sight of the August 11^th, 1999, total solar eclipse over Europe.

NASA-GOES:

Weather satellites can, and do, occasionally catch sight of the inky black dot of the Moon’s penumbra crossing the disk of the Earth. GOES-West snapped the above image of the November 13^th, 2012, solar eclipse. The umbra of the Moon’s shadow races about 1700 kilometres per hour from west to east during an eclipse, and we can expect some interesting images in 2017 when the next total solar eclipse crosses the United States on August 21^st, 2017.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project:

The final mission of Apollo program, the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, also yielded an unusual and little known effort to observe the Sun. The idea was to use the Apollo command module as a “coronagraph” and have cosmonauts image the Sun from the Soyuz as the Apollo spacecraft blocked it out after undocking. Unfortunately, the Apollo thrusters smeared the exposure, and it became a less than iconic— though unusual — view from the space age.

Gemini XII and the first eclipse seen from space:

On November 12^th, 1966, a total solar eclipse graced South America. Astronauts James Lovell Jr. and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. were also in orbit at the time, and managed to snap the first image of a solar eclipse from space. Gemini XII was the last flight of the program, and the astronauts initially thought they’d missed the eclipse after a short trajectory burn.

The 2012 transit of Venus as seen from the ISS. Credit: NASA/Don Pettit.

ISS Astronauts catch a transit of Venus:

We were fortunate that the International Space Station had its very own amateur astronomer in residence in 2012 to witness the historic transit of Venus from space. NASA astronaut Don Pettit knew that the transit would occur during his rotation, and packed a full-aperture white light solar filter for the occasion. Of course, a planetary transit meets the very loosest definition of a partial eclipse, but it’s a unique capture nonetheless.

Kaguya:

Japan’s SELENE-Kaguya spacecraft entered orbit around the Moon in 2007 and provided some outstanding imagery of our solitary natural neighbor. On February 10^th, 2009, it also managed to catch a high definition view of the Earth eclipsing the Sun as seen from lunar orbit. A rare catch, such an event occurs during every lunar eclipse as seen from the Earth.

Mars eclipse — Curiosity captures a misshapen eclipse from the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL.

An unusual eclipse… seen from Mars:

We’re fortunate to live in an epoch in time and space where total solar eclipses can occur as seen from the Earth. But bizarre eclipses and transits can also be seen from Mars. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers have witnessed brief transits of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos across the face of the Sun, and in 2010, the Curiosity rover recorded the passage of Phobos in front of the Sun in a bizarre-potato shaped “annular eclipse”. But beyond just the “coolness” factor, the event also helped researchers refine our understanding of orbital path of the Martian moon.

The future: It’s also interesting to think of what sort of astronomical wonders await travelers as we venture out across the solar system. For example, no human has yet to stand on the Moon and witness a solar eclipse. Or how about a ring plane passage through Saturn’s rings, thus far only witnessed via the robotic eyes of Cassini? Of course, for the best views of Saturn’s rings, we recommend a vacation stay on Iapetus, the only major Saturnian moon whose orbit is inclined to the ring plane. And stick around ‘til November 10^th, 2084, and you can witness a transit of Earth, the Moon and Phobos as seen from the slopes of Elysium Mons on Mars:

Hopefully, they’ll have perfected that whole Futurama “head-in-a-jar” thing by then…

-Looking for eclipses in science fiction? Check out the author’s tales Exeligmos and Shadowfall.

October 2, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Our Complete Guide to the October 8th “Hunter’s Moon” Total Lunar Eclipse

October 2014 means eclipse season 2 of 2 for the year is upon us.

Don’t fear the ‘Blood Moon’ that’s currently infecting the web, but if you find yourself on the correct moonward facing hemisphere of the planet, do get out and observe the total lunar eclipse coming right up on the morning of Wednesday, October 8^th. This is the second and final total lunar eclipse of 2014, and the second of four in a quartet series of lunar eclipses known as a tetrad.

And the good news is, the eclipse once again favors nearly all of North America. From the western U.S. and Canada, the Moon will be high in the western skies when partial phases begin early in the morning on October 8^th. The western U.S., Canada and Alaska will see the entire 61 minute span of totality, just 18 minutes shorter than last April’s lunar eclipse. The Moon will be high in the sky during totality for the Hawaiian Islands, and viewers in Australia and the Pacific Far East will witness the eclipse in the evening hours.

Visibility — The visibility regions for the total lunar eclipse. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Espenak.

This lunar eclipse is part of saros 127, and marks number 42 of a series of 72 for that particular saros. If you witnessed the total lunar eclipse visible from North America and Europe on September 27^th, 1996, you caught the last of the series, and if you catch the next eclipse in the saros on October 18^th, 2032, you’ve earned a veteran lunar eclipse-watchers badge of seeing an exeligmos, or “triple saros” of eclipses.

The path of the Moon through the Earth’s umbra on October 8th. Adapted from NASA/GFSC.

Timings for key phases of the eclipse are as follows:

P1- Penumbral phase begins: 8:14 UT/4:14 EDT/1:14 PDT

U1- Umbral (partial) phase begins: 9:15 UT/5:14 EDT/2:14 PDT

U2- Totality begins: 10:24 UT/6:24 EDT/3:24 PDT

Mid-totality- 10:55 UT/6:55 EDT/3:55 PDT

U3- Totality ends: 11:25 UT/7:25 EDT/4:25 PDT

U4- Umbral phase ends: 12:35 UT/5:35 PDT

P4- Penumbral phase ends: 13:35/6:35 PDT

Not all total lunar eclipses are the same when it comes to color. Totality can appear anywhere from a dark brick color, as happened during the December 9^th, 1992, eclipse following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, when the Moon nearly disappeared during totality, to a bright coppery red, as seen during the April eclipse earlier this year. The Moon passes to the north of the dark central core of the Earth’ shadow next Wednesday, so expect a brighter than normal eclipse, especially along the Moon’s northeast limb. Grab a painter’s wheel and compare the eclipsed Moon to swatches of orange through red: what colors do you see? What you’re seeing is the combinations of all the world’s sunsets refracted into the cone of the Earth’s shadow, which is about three times the size of the Moon at its average distance as seen from Earth. Remember, the Moon is experiencing a total solar eclipse as we watch the lunar eclipse unfold!

The October 8th total solar eclipse as seen from the Apollo 11 landing site on the nearside of the Moon. Created using Stellarium.

This color can be quantified and described on what is known as the Danjon Scale, with 0 being a very dark eclipse with the Moon barely visible, to a 4, meaning a very bright eclipse.

And yes, each total lunar eclipse is now receiving the “Blood Moon” meme thanks to ye ole Internet. Expect the conspiracy-minded to note that this eclipse occurs on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot starting at sundown on the 8th, which isn’t really all that wondrous as the Jewish calendar is a luni-solar one, and total lunar eclipses have to occur during a Full Moon by definition. Wait long enough, and an occasional “Sukkot total lunar eclipse” does indeed occur.

Uranus occultation — The footprint of the October 8th occultation of Uranus by the Moon during totality. (Credit: Occult 4.1.0).

But a truly rare event does occur during this eclipse, as the Moon actually occults (passes in front of) the planet Uranus during totality for observers in northern Alaska and northeast Asia. The rest of us in the observing zone will see a near miss. Can you spy Uranus with binoculars near the lunar limb during totality? Another such rarity occurred during Shakespeare’s time on December 30^th, 1591, involving Saturn and the eclipsed Moon, and another such odd occurrence transpires in 2344 A.D.

The circumstances of the 2344 eclipse/occultation. Credit: Starry Night, NASA/GSFC & Occult 4.0.1.

The brightest star to be occulted by the total eclipsed Moon as it crosses the constellation Pisces is +7.9^th magnitude HIP 4231 for the northern U.S. and Canada.

And speaking of historical eclipses, there’s a Columbus Day tie-in with the phenomenon as well. Like many mariners of his day, Columbus was well-versed in celestial navigation, and used a total lunar eclipse to get a good one-time fix on his longitude at sea, an experiment that you can easily replicate. Columbus also wasn’t above using prior knowledge of an impending lunar eclipse to get himself and his crew out of a bind with the locals when the need arose.

An outstanding sequence of images taken during the April 15th, 2014 total lunar eclipse. Credit: Michael Zeiler (Eclipse-Maps) Used with permission. — An outstanding sequence of images taken during the April 15th, 2014, total lunar eclipse. Credit: Michael Zeiler (Eclipse-Maps) Used with permission.

Photographing an eclipse with a DSLR is as easy as shooting an image of the Moon. Try this a few evenings before the big event. A minimum focal length of 200mm is needed to render the Moon larger than a white dot in the image, and remember that the Moon is much darker during total eclipse, and you’ll need to step the exposure times rapidly down from 1/100^th of a second to 2 to 4 seconds during totality.

A long-running effort by Sky & Telescope has been looking for amateur observations of precise crater contacts along the rim of the umbra in an effort to measure variations in the diameter of the Earth’s shadow.

starry night — The Moon versus Uranus as seen from Napa, California just past mid-eclipse on the morning of October 8th. Credit: Starry Night Education Software.

As always, weather prospects are the big question mark when it comes to eclipses. Typically, the southwestern U.S. experiences 13-20 clear days in the month of October; prospects worsen to the northwest, with an average of 3-12 days. We’ll be looking at resources such as NOAA, Skippy Sky and ClearSkyChart on the evenings leading up to the 8^th. The great thing about a lunar eclipse is, you don’t need a 100% clear sky to see it: just a clear view of the Moon!

Up for a challenge? We’ve yet to see a capture of a shadow transit of the International Space Station in front of the eclipsed Moon. This time around, such a capture should be possible across southern coastal California and the Baja peninsula just minutes prior to the onset of totality.

A shadow pass of the International Space Station just prior to the onset of totality. Note the position of the Moon. Created using Orbitron.

Another bizarre catch, known as a selenelion — witnessing the end of lunar totality after sunrise — may just be possible across the northeastern U.S. into the Canadian Maritimes as the eclipsed Moon sets during totality. The more elevation you can get the better! This works because the Moon lingers a bit in the large shadow of the Earth, plus atmospheric refraction gives the low altitude Sun and Moon a slight boost.

Clouded out? On the wrong side of the planet? You can watch the eclipse online at the following links:

– Live views courtesy of Gialuca Masi and the Virtual Telescope starting at 10:00 UT on October 8th.

– A live webcast starting at 9:00 UT courtesy of Slooh:

– A Columbia State University broadcast, (time to be determined).

Planning an ad-hoc broadcast? Let us know!

And as the eclipse wraps up, the biggest question is always: When’s the next one? Well, lunar eclipse number three of the four eclipse tetrad occurs next year on April 4^th, 2015… but in just two weeks time, the western United States and Canada will also witness a fine partial solar eclipse on Oct 23^rd…

Stay tuned!

Got images of the total lunar eclipse? Send ‘em in to Universe Today’s Flickr forum!

Interested in eclipse sci-fi? Check out our latest short stories Exeligmos and Shadowfall.

September 23, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

A Triple Occultation Bonanza: A Challenging Series of Occultations This Weekend and More

The 1st Quarter Moon occults Saturn during the last event in the series on August 5th, 2015. Sequence courtesy of Teale Britstra.

Got clear skies? This week’s equinox means the return of astronomical Fall for northern hemisphere observers and a slow but steady return of longer nights afterwards. And as the Moon returns to the evening skies, all eyes turn to the astronomical action transpiring low to the southwest at dusk.

Three planets and two “occasional” planets lie along the Moon’s apparent path this coming weekend: Mars, Saturn, Mercury and the tiny worldlets of 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres. Discovered in the early 19^th century, Ceres and Vesta enjoyed planetary status initially before being relegated to the realm of the asteroids, only to make a brief comeback in 2006 before once again being purged along with Pluto to dwarf planet status.

The Moon approaches Saturn on the evening of September 28th as seen from latitude 30 degrees north. Credit: Stellarium.

On Sunday September 28^th, the four day old Moon will actually occult (pass in front of) Saturn, Ceres, and Vesta in quick succession. The Saturn occultation is part of a series of 12 in an ongoing cycle. This particular occultation is best for Hawaiian-based observers on the evening of September 28^th. Astute observers will recall that Ceres and Vesta fit in the same 15’ field of view earlier this summer. Both are now over six degrees apart and slowly widening. Unfortunately, there is no location worldwide where it’s possible to see all (or two) of these objects occulted simultaneously. The best spots for catching the occultations of +7.8 magnitude Vesta and +9.0 magnitude Ceres are from the Horn of Africa and just off of the Chilean coast of South America, respectively. The rest of us will see a close but photogenic conjunction of the trio and the Moon. To our knowledge, an occultation of Ceres or Vesta by the dark limb of the Moon has yet to be recorded. Vesta also reaches perihelion this week on September 23^rd at 4:00 UT, about 2.2 astronomical units from the Sun and 2.6 A.U.s from Earth.

4 Vesta and 1 Ceres share the same field of view this past summer. Credit: Andrew Symes @FailedProtostar.

The reappearance of the Moon in the evening skies is also a great time to try your hand (or eyes) at the fine visual athletic sport of waxing crescent moon-spotting. The Moon passes New phase marking the start of lunation 1135 on Wednesday, September 24^th at 6:12 UT/2:12 AM EDT. First sighting opportunities will occur over the South Pacific on the same evening, with worldwide opportunities to spy the razor-thin Moon low to the west the following night. Aim your binoculars at the Moon and sweep about three degrees to the south, and you’ll spy Mercury and the bright star Spica just over a degree apart.

This week’s New Moon is also notable for marking the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, and the beginning of the Jewish year 5775 A.M. at sundown on Wednesday. The Jewish calendar is a hybrid luni-solar one, and inserted an embolismic or intercalculary month earlier this spring to stay in sync with the solar year.

Occult 4.0 — The occultation footprint of Saturn. The dashed line denotes where the event occurs in the daytime, while the solid line marks where it can be seen after sunset. Created using Occult 4.1.0.

The Moon also visits Mars and Antares on September 29^th. The ruddy pair sits just three degrees apart on the 28^th, making an interesting study in contrast. Which one looks “redder” to you? Antares was actually named by the Greeks to refer to it as the “equal to,” “pseudo,” or “anti-Mars…” Mars can take on anything from a yellowish to pumpkin orange appearance, depending on the current amount of dust suspended in its atmosphere. The action around Mars is also heating up, as NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft just arrived in orbit around the Red Planet and India’s Mars Orbiter is set to join it this week… and all as Comet A1 Siding Spring makes a close pass on October 19^th!

And speaking of spacecraft, another news maker is photo-bombing the dusk scene, although of course it’s much too faint to see. NASA’s Dawn mission is en route to enter orbit around Ceres in early 2015, and currently lies near R.A. 15h 02’ and declination -14 37’, just over a degree from Ceres as seen from Earth. The Moon will briefly “occult” the Dawn spacecraft as well on September 28^th.

Credit: Starry Night — Crowded skies: the Moon approaching Saturn, 4 Vesta, 1 Ceres and the Dawn spacecraft on the 28th. The red arrow shows the direction of the Moon. Created using Starry Night Education Software.

Be sure to keep an eye out for Earthshine on the dark limb of the Moon as our natural neighbor in space waxes from crescent to First Quarter. What you’re seeing is the reflection of sunlight from the gibbous Earth illuminating the lunar plains on the nighttime side of the Moon. This effect gives the Moon a dramatic 3D appearance and can vary depending on the amount of cloud and snow cover currently facing the Moon.

Such a close trio of conjunctions raises the question: when was the last time the Moon covered two or more planets at once? Well, on April 23^rd 1998, the Moon actually occulted Venus and Jupiter at the same time, although you had to journey to Ascension Island to witness it!

Such bizarre conjunctions are extremely rare. You need a close pairing of less than half a degree for two bright objects to be covered by the Moon at the same time. And often, such conjunctions occur too close to the Sun for observation. A great consequence of such passages, however, is that it can result in a “smiley-face” conjunction, such as the one that occurs on October 15^th, 2036:

Such an occurrence lends credence to a certain sense of cosmic irony in the universe.

And be sure to keep an eye on the Moon, as eclipse season 2 of 2 for 2014 kicks off next week, with the second total lunar eclipse of the year visible from North America.

More to come!

April 7, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

The Science Behind the “Blood Moon Tetrad” and Why Lunar Eclipses Don’t Mean the End of the World

A mosaic of the 2003 total lunar eclipse. photos by author.

By now, you may have already heard the latest tale of gloom and doom surrounding the upcoming series of lunar eclipses.

This latest “End of the World of the Week” comes to us in what’s being termed as a “Blood Moon,” and it’s an internet meme that’s elicited enough questions from friends, family and random people on Twitter that it merits addressing from an astronomical perspective.

Like the hysteria surrounding the supposed Mayan prophecy back in 2012 and Comet ISON last year, the purveyors of Blood Moon lunacy offer a pretty mixed and often contradictory bag when it comes down to actually what will occur.

But just like during the Mayan apocalypse nonsense, you didn’t have to tally up just how many Piktuns are in a Baktun to smell a rat. December 21^st 2012 came and went, the galactic core roughly aligned with the solstice — just like it does every year — and the end of the world types slithered back into their holes to look for something else produce more dubious YouTube videos about.

Here’s the gist of what’s got some folks wound up about the upcoming cycle of eclipses. The April 15^th total lunar eclipse is the first in series of four total eclipses spanning back-to-back years, known as a tetrad. There are eight tetrads in the 21^st century: if you observed the set total lunar eclipses back in 2003 and 2004, you saw the first tetrad of the 21^st century.

The eclipses in this particular tetrad, however, coincide with the Full Moon marking Passover on April 15^th and April 4^th and the Jewish observance of Sukkot on October 8^th and September 28^th. Many then go on to cite the cryptic biblical verse from Revelation 6:12, which states;

“I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The Sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair. The whole Moon turned blood red.”

Whoa, some scary allegory, indeed… but does this mean the end of the world is nigh?

I wouldn’t charge that credit card through the roof just yet.

First off, looking at the eclipse tetrads for the 21^st century, we see that they’re not really all that rare:

21^st century eclipse tetrads:

Eclipse #1	Eclipse #2	Eclipse #3	Eclipse #4
May 16^th, 2003	November 9^th, 2003	May 4^th , 2004	October 28^th, 2004
April 15^th, 2014*+	October 8^th, 2014	April 4^th, 2015*+	September 28^th, 2015
April 25^th, 2032	October 18^th, 2032	April 14^th, 2033*+	October 8^th, 2033
March 25^th, 2043*	September 19^th, 2043	March 13^th, 2044	September 7^th, 2044
May 6^th, 2050	October 30^th, 2050	April 26^th, 2051	October 19^th, 2051
April 4^th, 2061*+	September 29^th, 2061	March 25^th, 2062*	September 18^th, 2062
March 4^th, 2072	August 28^th, 2072	February 22^nd, 2073	August 17^th, 2073
March 15^th, 2090	September 8^th, 2090	March 5^th, 2091	August 29^th, 2091
*Paschal Full Moon
+Eclipse coincides with Passover

Furthermore, Passover is always marked by a Full Moon, and a lunar eclipse always coincides with a Full Moon by definition, meaning it cannot occur at any other phase. The Jewish calendar is a luni-solar based calendar that attempts to mark the passage of astronomical time via the apparent course that the Sun and the Moon tracks through the sky. The Muslim calendar is an example of a strictly lunar calendar, and our western Gregorian calendar is an example of a straight up solar one. The Full Moon marking Passover often, though not always, coincides with the Paschal Moon heralding Easter. And for that matter, Passover actually starts at sunset the evening prior in 2014 on April 14^th. Easter is reckoned as the Sunday after the Full Moon falling after March 21^st which is the date the Catholic Church fixes as the vernal equinox, though in this current decade, it falls on March 20^th. Easter can therefore fall anywhere from March 22^nd to April 25^th, and in 2014 falls on the late-ish side, on April 20^th.

To achieve synchrony, the Jewish calendar must add what’s known as embolismic or intercalculary months (a second month of Adar) every few years, which in fact it did just last month. Eclipses happen, and sometimes they occur on Passover. It’s rare that they pop up on tetrad cycles, yes, but it’s at best a mathematical curiosity that is a result of our attempt to keep our various calendrical systems in sync with the heavens. It’s interesting to check out the tally of total eclipses versus tetrads over a two millennium span:

Century	Number of Total Lunar Eclipses	Number of Tetrads	Century	Number of Total Lunar Eclipses	Number of Tetrads
11^th	62	0	21^st	85	8
12^th	59	0	22^nd	69	4
13^th	60	0	23^rd	61	0
14^th	77	6	24^th	60	0
15^th	83	4	25^th	69	4
16^th	77	6	26^th	87	8
17^th	61	0	27^th	79	7
18^th	60	0	28^th	64	0
19^th	62	0	29^th	57	0
20^th	81	5	30^th	63	1

Note that over a five millennium span from 1999 BC to 3000 AD, the max number of eclipse tetrads that any century can have is 8, which occurs this century and last happened in the 9^th century AD.

Of course, the visual appearance of a “Blood of the Moon” that’s possibly alluded to in Revelation is a real phenomena that you can see next week from North and South America as the Moon enters into the dark umbra or core of the shadow of the Earth. But this occurs during every total lunar eclipse, and the redness of the Moon is simply due to the scattering of sunlight through the Earth’s atmosphere. Incidentally, this redness can vary considerably due to the amount of dust, ash, and particulate aerosols aloft in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in anything from a bright cherry red eclipse during totality to an eclipsed Moon almost disappearing from view altogether… but it’s well understood by science and not at all supernatural.

The changing colors of a lunar eclipse: a mosaic of four eclipses. Photos by author.

Curiously, the Revelation passage could be read to mean a total solar eclipse as well, though both can never happen on the same day. Lunar and solar eclipses occur in pairs two weeks apart at Full and New Moon phases when the nodes of the Moon’s ecliptic crossing comes into alignment with the Sun — known as a syzygy, an ultimate triple word score in Scrabble, by the way — and this eclipse season sees a non-central annular eclipse following the April 15^th eclipse on April 29^th.

And yes, earthquakes, wars, disease, relationship breakups and lost car keys are on tap to occur in 2014 and 2015… just like during any other year. Lunar eclipses marked the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the World Series victory of the Red Sox in 2004, but they’re far from rare. We humans love to see patterns, and sometimes this habit works against us, making us see them where none exists. This is simply a case of the gambler’s fallacy, counting the hits at the cost of the misses. We could just as easily make a case that the upcoming eclipse tetrad of April 15th, October 8^th, April 4^th and September 28th marks US Tax Day, Croatian Independence Day, The Feast of Benedict of the Moor & — Michael Scott take note — International World Rabies Day… perhaps the final 2015 eclipse should be known as a “Rabies Moon?”

So, what’s the harm in believing in a little gloom and doom? The harm in believing the world ends tomorrow comes when we fail to plan for still being here the day after. The harm comes when something like the Heavens Gate mass suicide goes down. We are indeed linked to the universe, but not in the mundane and trivial way that astrologers and doomsdayers would have you believe. Science shows us where we came from and where we might be headed. We’ve already fielded queries from folks asking if it’s safe (!) to stare at the Blood Moon during the eclipse, and the answer is yes… don’t give in to superstition and miss out on this spectacular show of nature because of some internet nonsense.

The upcoming lunar eclipse next week won’t mean the end of the world for anyone, except, perhaps, NASA’s LADEE spacecraft… be sure not to miss it!

December 8, 2011December 24, 2015 by Tammy Plotner

Lunar Eclipse – Saturday, December 10, 2011

Aligning his camera on the same star for nine successive exposures, Sky & Telescope contributing photographer Akira Fujii captured this record of the Moon’s progress dead center through the Earth’s shadow in July 2000. Credit: Sky & Telescope / Akira Fujii

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Are you ready for some good, old-fashioned observing fun? Although you might not want to get up early, it’s going to be worth your time. This Saturday, December 10, 2011, marks the last total lunar eclipse event for the western portion of the Americas until 2014. While a solar eclipse event has a very small footprint where it is visible, a lunar eclipse has a wide and wonderful path that encompasses a huge amount of viewers. “We’re all looking at this together,” says Sky & Telescope senior editor Alan MacRobert.

12-10-2011_EclipseMap_341px — How much of the dawn lunar eclipse will be visible for you? For your location, this map tells what stage the eclipse will have progressed to by the time the Moon sets below your west-northwestern horizon. Credit: Sky & Telescope

If you live in the eastern portion of the Americas, sorry… You’ll miss out on this one. In the Central time zone, the Moon will be setting while it is partially eclipsed. However, beginning in a line that takes in Arizona and the Dakotas you’ll be treated to the beginning of the lunar eclipse, totality, and it will set as it is beginning to come out of eclipse. If you live in the western portion of the US or Canada? Lucky you! You’ll get to enjoy the Moon as it goes through the initial states of eclipse, see totality and even might catch the phases as it slips out of Earth’s shadow again – just as the Sun begins to rise. For Skywatchers in Hawaii, Australia, and East Asia, you’ll have it better. Seen from there, the whole eclipse happens high in a dark sky from start to finish. For Europe and Africa, the eclipsed Moon will be lower in the east during or after twilight on the evening of the 10th.

When exactly does the event begin? The lunar eclipse will be total from 6:05 to 6:57 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. The partial stage of the eclipse begins more than an hour earlier, at 4:45 a.m. PST. Be sure to watch the southern lunar edge, too. Because the Moon will be skimming by the southern edge of the Earth’s shadow, it will remain slightly brighter and add to the dimensional effect you’ll see. Enjoy the coppery colors from the refracted sunlight! The Moon won’t be black – but it will most certainly be a very photogenic experience.

“That red light on the Moon during a lunar eclipse comes from all the sunrises and sunsets around the Earth at the time,” explains Sky & Telescope editor in chief Robert Naeye. “If you were an astronaut standing on the Moon and looking up, the whole picture would be clear. The Sun would be covered up by a dark Earth that was ringed all around with a thin, brilliant band of sunset- and sunrise-colored light — bright enough to dimly illuminate the lunar landscape around you.”

May clear skies be yours!

Original News Source: Sky and Telescope News Release. Image Credits: Sky and Telescope.