Total eclipse of full moon tonight

Monday, December 20, 2010

Weather permitting, almost anyone in North America will be able to see a total lunar eclipse of the full moon tonight.

Moreover, tonight's eclipse will fall on the same day as the winter solstice, the first such occurrence since 1638.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, Earth, and the sun all line up, with Earth in the middle.

Around 1 a.m. EST tonight the Earth will begin casting a faint shadow on the moon. The shadow will continue to advance until the total eclipse, which is expected to begin at 2:41 a.m. EST, and will last for a little over 70 minutes.

For all those night owls and amateur astronomers out there, hopefully you'll have some clear skies in your neck of the woods tonight!

For a better understanding of what to expect tonight, please click here.


"There is no dark side of the moon really.
Matter of fact it's all dark."



Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

2 comments

Tim said...

Looks like we'll be having lots of clouds Jeff. If I can stay up that long I might go out on the back deck to check it out. Otherwise I'll likely be snoozing away.

Tim,
http://appalachiaandbeyond.blogspot.com

The Smoky Mountain Hiker said...

Tim - yes, the weather isn't looking good here as well. But I'm going to give it the old college try, afterall, I don't plan on waiting 400 years to get another opportunity to see a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice!

Jeff