Lunar Eclipse 28th Nov

Hi friends,
Just wondering if anyone has any info on the lunar eclipse tonight. Am I right in saying we'll barely be able to catch it tomorrow morning?

Will

hi Will,

mid-eclipse is 2:30pm so very little of the Moon will still be immersed in the Earth's shadow at moonrise from Ireland later in the evening.

a rough rule of thumb though is that 70% of the Moon needs to be immersed in the Earth's penumbral shadow eclipses for some darkening of the disk to be noticed. At times, you'd be hard pushed to notice anything at all during these type of eclipses! There was an article a few years ago in "Sky and Telescope" however where someone wrote about enhancing digital images to show definite darkening.

The normal dimming of the Moon low down at moonrise will make it near impossible to notice anything different on the 28th.

See earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/when-i...se-for-north-america for a nice article on lunar eclipses in 2012.

Next total lunar eclipse from Ireland is 2015!

john

Thanks for the info, John.
I can stay in bed.

I can completely concur with John about this penumbral lunar eclipse. Valerie and I tried to observe it from Melbourne, Australia in completely clear skies. There was no shading around the north pole of the Moon at all.
But I have to ask: I remember Michael Murphy reporting he saw a penumbral lunar eclipse some years ago. Perhaps he can tell us when it was. Thanks Michael.

Aubrey

flt158 wrote: I can completely concur with John about this penumbral lunar eclipse. Valerie and I tried to observe it from Melbourne, Australia in completely clear skies. There was no shading around the north pole of the Moon at all.
But I have to ask: I remember Michael Murphy reporting he saw a penumbral lunar eclipse some years ago. Perhaps he can tell us when it was. Thanks Michael.

Aubrey

Hi Aubrey,

It was a few years ago and if memory serves it was a deep penumbral.
It was at 3 or 4 in the morning if anyone else can remember the date.
I did see a shading difference across the Moon.

Michael.

Thank you, Michael, for that. I am just checking Philip Harrington's famous book "Eclipse!". He lists a penumbral lunar eclipse that occurred on Wednesday 20th November 2002. Maximum eclipse was at 1.47 am. Perhaps this was the one! Nice trip down memory lane. I now wonder will I ever see one!

Aubrey.