After earlier this month we had a meteor shower, now it’s
time for another spectacular phenomenon.
Tuesday, August 28, in early morning hours you can watch the
Moon crosses in to the shadow of the Earth, becoming completely immersed for
one-hour and 30 minutes.
A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes
through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Moon
is full, and when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely
so.
According to NASA, the event begins 54 minutes past midnight
PDT (3:54 a.m. EDT) on August 28 and this eclipse will be the deepest and
longest in 7 years. The longest possible duration for the total phase is 107
minutes, and last occurred in July 2000.
Around 2:52 a.m. PDT (5:52 a.m. EDT) the color of the Moon
changes from moondust-gray to sunset-red.
This is totality, and it lasts for almost 90 minutes. Dark
eclipses are caused by volcanic gas and dust which filters and blocks much of
the Sun's light from reaching the Moon. But since no major volcanic eruptions
have taken place recently, the Moon will probably take on a vivid red or orange
color during the total phase.
The eclipse will be visible from Australia,
parts of Asia and most of the Americas,
but not from Africa or Europe, NASA said. Also
the view will be different from each location on the planet.
The viewers on the West Coast the eclipse will get the best
show, as for them the entire eclipse will be visible from start to finish
before moonset in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
For the sky gazers living on the East Coast and in the Great
Lakes States, the eclipse will start around dawn and will still be occurring
when the Sun rises and the Moon sets that morning.
Finally, the people living across the Mid-West, Plains, and Rocky Mountain States will see only a partial eclipse as
the Moon emerges from the shadow of the Earth.
If for us the eclipse will be just another sky show, for
NASA the Tuesday phenomenon is particularly important as the US space agency
is preparing to for the next year’s launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO)
LRO is a robotic mission designed to create a new type of
comprehensive, digital map of the Moon's features and resources, necessary to
cost-effectively, but mostly will focus on selecting safe landing sites for future
human missions.
In order to watch to moon eclipse, you don’t need special
glasses or eye protection, but with a binocular or a telescope, the show might
be even more spectacular. According to NASA, the next moon eclipse will occur on
Feb. 21, 2008 and if you will miss this one, the next chance to see such a phenomenon
will be in 2010.