We know a lot of you are curious about tomorrow’s early morning Lunar Eclipse. RAC will not hold a public event to view the eclipse as it occurs too early for the general public to be involved. However, this event does not require a telescope and is visible to the naked eye so we encourage everyone to try ad view this event on their own. On the morning of the 8th look to the West, the timing for the Lunar Eclipse is as follows:
- Moon enters penumbra: 2014 Oct 08 04:13:48
- Moon enters umbra: 2014 Oct 08 05:14:12
- Start of totality: 2014 Oct 08 06:24:22 (Red Phase)
- Maximum eclipse: 2014 Oct 08 06:54:20 (Deepest Red)
- Moon Sets: 2014 Oct 08 07:20:51 (Moonsets Eclipsed)
- End of totality: 2014 Oct 08 07:24:17
- Moon leaves umbra: 2014 Oct 08 08:34:26
- Moon leaves penumbra: 2014 Oct 08 09:34:57
Wednesday’s early morning Lunar eclipse will be an interesting one for us here on the East Coast. For about 9 minutes the Sun will rise before the full moon sets in a very rare event known as “Selenelion”. This is sometimes referred to as a “Horizontal Eclipse”. What is actually happening though is the Moon’s and Sun’s images are being refracted by Earth’s atmosphere so that they appear to be higher in the sky than their true geometric position.
We may also have a chance to observe a blueish edge to on the lunar sphere which is a refraction of Earth’s OZONE layer.
So, this will definitely be an interesting eclipse to behold. I hope you all get a chance to see it.
