BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy 2015 total lunar eclipse - now past

September 27-28 is the date. In the Americas it will start on the evening of the 27th, but in Europe and beyond, it will be the wee hours of the 28th.

It looks to be a good one - weather permitting, of course - with totality lasting over an hour.

What's happening in a lunar eclipse? Read all about it.

The upcoming eclipse is the final eclipse of a lunar tetrad. A tetrad is a group of four, and in 2014-15 there have been two pairs of total lunar eclipses.

You can find out more in my article
Blood Moons and Lunar Tetrads.
A tetrad of Blood Moons sounds very dramatic. It could even be the title of a fantasy novel. But what is a “Blood Moon”? What is a lunar tetrad? And is it as apocalyptic as it sounds? Have a look.

A special feature of this month's eclipse is that it will happen when the Moon is at lunar perigee. The Moon's orbit isn't quite circular, so sometimes it's closer to us than it is at other times. It's closest at perigee and farthest away at apogee. But usually its apparent size is somewhere between the two - and when there's nothing to compare it to, the apparent size difference isn't really apparent to the eye.

Still it's a little enhancement for eclipse watchers. You can enjoy an eclipse without any equipment, but if you have binoculars, the view is pretty cool.

In order to find out whether you can see the eclipse - and how much of it - here is a map. The whole eclipse will be visible - weather permitting - from South America, eastern North America and western Europe. But that doesn't mean it will happen at a sociable hour in your part of the world. The times given are UTC, which is Greenwich Mean Time. That means the greatest eclipse in Britain is about four in the morning. Ugh! The timing is better in the Americas where many people will be able to see it on the night of the 27th.

The lunar and solar eclipses are marked on my calendar!

A lunar eclipse is usually associated with a solar eclipse. The next lunar eclipse is at the full Moon in just over two weeks, and at the new Moon in a few days there's a partial solar eclipse. It'll have a small audience, with the best view to be had in Antarctica. However southern Africa - weather permitting - will also have a view. Are you on this map?

As you get farther north, the eclipsed part of the Sun will get smaller. Most people who are in areas where you could see the eclipse won't even notice the sky darkening. But this means it's very important NOT to look at the Sun without eclipse glasses or a piece of #14 welder’s glass. But you can project the eclipse with a pinhole in a piece of card or various other things with holes in them.

Thank you for all of that information Mona. I remember making the paper/card with the pinhole at school many many years ago. We couldn't get the special glasses where we lived.

Light coming through gaps between leaves can have the same effect as a pinhole - except there are multiple images. Here is one of my favorites from Space.Com a few years ago. The Sun's image is multiplied on the fence . . . and on something else!

Apparently, a colandar can give a nice effect too, though I've never tried it.

A partial solar eclipse occurred yesterday morning in Antarctica and southern Africa. But there was a double eclipse from Earth orbit – NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded it. At 6.30 UT, Earth passed between the Sun and SDO, producing a near black-out as Earth moved across the face of the Sun. About an hour later the Moon was in the way, producing the second eclipse.

Here are two pictures from the SDO. The edge of the Earth is fuzzier than that of the Moon because of our atmosphere.

How fascinating Mona!