Lunar Eclipse: The first row of Joburg at the show of a lifetime

Time of departure: 21:30

Time of end: 23:13

* This is the total period of eclipse. Aside from the medical advances in human longevity, the total lunar eclipse that will love South Africa tonight is the 17th of its kind during this century and there are 68 more to come. But not all will be visible from South Africa, very few will be visible at the beginning of the evening and none will be so long.

At 1 hour 43 minutes and 35 seconds, to be exact, the total lunar eclipse will be the longest of the 230 lunar eclipses scheduled to take place this century. The shortest took place on April 4, 2015 (11m53s) but Africa was not honored by his presence. The next longer will be in March 2025, but South Africa will not have a clear vision.

"What happens is that the earth moves between the sun and the moon and the shadow of the earth falls on the moon" says, explaining that there is two shadows ombra and dim light and during a total eclipse the ombra is the black shadow that we see.

Total lunar eclipses only occur during a full moon, says Jooste and that's why you can see the eclipse so clearly sometimes because of the contrast of the shadow and the light reflective luminous moon. However, what you will also notice tonight is the characteristic reddish hue of the moon, sometimes called the blood moon.

"This is not dangerous at all, unless you see a werewolf," said the astronomer before we were laughing again.

"The red light goes through the atmosphere with the blue light that comes off and falls on the moon making it of a dark brown and sometimes red color", this process is called refraction when sunlight is diverted by the earth's atmosphere. "There is a lot of dust in the atmosphere, like volcanic activity, this dust settles in the upper atmosphere and makes the moon have a more red color," says Jooste, doing reference to volcanic activity near Hawaii recently. probably turn the moon tonight a deep red.

But it's not the only red you'll see in the sky tonight. [19699002] The red planet, Mars, will also be exposed, close to the Moon, says Jooste, as Mars approaches its nearest point to the Earth. But it is not the only planetary body that will be visible.

"We are very lucky, because it is a rare event, that we will have the five planets visible in the horizon after sunset." Shortly after sunset, we can see the mercury, then we will see Venus in the sky of the west, we have the transparency of Jupiter which is very bright, Saturn which would be at the tail of Scorpio then of Mars. "[19659002"ItistheclosestandthebrightestofMars-andthegreaterwehavebeenstudyingsince2003"saysJoostandtheexcitementisclearlyperceptibleinhiswords

All this and others will be visible from the" climax "of Johannesburg, the astronomical society's own observatory. The large telescope will be used to see the craters on the moon changing color as well as the celestial bodies, while, through the smaller telescopes, you will see the moon in all its glory of eclipse. There will also be hot chocolate and fires of different colors to keep you warm, as Jooste makes adults and children vibrate on the stars, the moon and the eclipse.

Can the scientist learn something during an eclipse? Yes, they can, the light reflected by the moon is less hard and this allows them to observe a more complete picture of the starry night during a full moon. There is also the fact that the surface of the moon is cooling rapidly during an eclipse allowing scientists to use infrared cameras to better understand its surface.

The best place to see an eclipse? Jooste tells you two things to work in your favor, there must be a clear sky and two there must be little or no light pollution. If he had to choose a place where it would be good to see the Milky Way, the Moon and everything in between, it would be in the Karoo or Kalahari.

There will also be a live streaming event of the complete lunar eclipse that will take place between Johannesburg and Santorini in Greece, which NASA will be pushing around the world.

And with clear skies set for tonight, Joburg has a place in the front row for a single night, which will never be repeated in our show of life, launched and hosted by the greatest storyteller of all, the 39; universe!

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