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We expect the moon to appear red or orange, as it did during the lunar eclipse in January.
Petros Giannakouris / AP
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Petros Giannakouris / AP
We expect the moon to appear red or orange, as it did during the lunar eclipse of January
Petros Giannakouris / AP
Put the bad news in the foreground: you will not be able to see the epic lunar eclipse of this Friday in person if you live in North America (apart from a very small part of Eastern Canada and eastern regions) Caribbean)
But here is the good news: if you are almost elsewhere you will probably be able to see at least part of the event.
The first viewing is done in East and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia, based on a map of NASA.
The most remarkable thing about this particular eclipse is its extraordinary length – in fact, NASA expects that It is the longest lunar eclipse of this century. The total lunar eclipse is expected to last an hour and 42 minutes, with the entire event lasting more than 6 hours.
To know exactly when the eclipse will affect your area, you can calculate it on Timeanddate.com
Contrary to a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is easy and safe to the naked eye, says Francisco Diego, an astronomer from University College London. But he recommends using a pair of binoculars, if you have any, to really observe all the changes in the shade and color that occur during the event.
"It's really spectacular," says Diego.
During the eclipse, the Earth, the Sun and the Moon will be in a single line, with the Earth between the Sun and the Moon. This means that "the moon will come into the shadow of the Earth and stop receiving the sunlight," adds Diego.
At that time, it looks like the moon has changed color dramatically, which is why a lunar eclipse is sometimes known as a "blood moon". It is not surprising that some ancient peoples viewed these events as terrifying omens.
The eclipse will briefly cause the appearance of the moon in colors ranging from "pale orange to deep red," Diego explains. This is because sunlight will filter through the Earth's atmosphere before it hits the moon. He says "the effect is similar to a sunset."
And the shadow and intensity of this color, he says, "must do very little with the moon, but this has to to see with our own atmosphere. " And our atmosphere "could be very clean or very dirty."
Events like fires and volcanoes can change the quality of the air and have an impact on the weather, he says. "If the atmosphere is very clean, then the light will be very bright and the color of the moon will appear bright and orange or even yellow," he says. And if it's dirty, he says it might appear darker than usual.
"We can use the moon as a screen where the quality of the atmosphere … is projected on this screen and according to what we can do a little diagnosis of how the atmosphere of the Earth behaves at this point, "he says.
If you are in a place where you will not be able to see the eclipse in person, there are still ways to look at it. The Slooh organization is going to be streaming here.
The next lunar eclipse will occur on January 21, 2019. In this one, the best observation will be from North and South America.
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