TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MOON TUES APRIL 15

       The wee morning of April 15^th will have some excitement in the sky worth getting up for…a total eclipse of the Moon.

       The partial eclipse action begins at 1:58 am on that Tuesday morning when the first “bite” is taken out of the Full Moon, signaling our celestial neighbor is passing through the shadow Earth casts into space.

The total eclipse technically starts at 3:06 am when the entire Moon will be covered up inside our shadow, and remain so as it moves for the next 89 minutes. 

At 4:25 am, the total eclipse ends, the silvery light of the Moon beginning to be revealed again until the partial eclipse phase ends at 5:32 am.

LUNAR ECLIPSE IN THE PLEIADES 2003  Photo by MARQ

       During the totality phase, the bright Moon is rendered dark, and its exact hue is always unpredictable—from smoky dark to copper red.  This color is caused by the refraction of light in Earth’s atmosphere.  This coloration is given a scale of tints called the Danjon Scale, which you can judge for yourself.

       What is fascinating to watch are the stars that reappear as the bright moonlight is dimmed by Earth’s shadow. The starry background is centered with the Moon in Virgo, near the bright star Spica, with red Mars above and to the east, Saturn in Libra.

       The Moon eclipse technically begins when the orb touches the fainter cone of light the Earth throws into space, the penumbra, at 12:52 am.  That’s hard to detect with the naked eye, but a subtle change in the lunar brightness will lead to the partial eclipse phase when the Moon touches the Earth’s dark umbra beginning at 3:06 am.

       An eclipse of the Moon is the opposite of an eclipse of the Sun, when the Moon passes in front of our star.  Both celestial events happen twice a year somewhere in the world.  And finally, our North America gets to see the lights go out on the Moon—for the first time since 2008. 

Photo by MarQ

       A lunar eclipse is a great photo opportunity, even with a good “point-and-shoot” that has a long telephoto zoom.  Use a tripod, crank up the ISO sensitivity of the camera to 1,000 or more, and even use self timer to eliminate camera shake on exposures longer than 1/30^th of a second.   With the free digital images, take lots and spot check them.  But don’t delete any in the field; wait to see any astrophotos on a computer because even mistakes can be creative. 

       The eclipse of the Moon, or Sun, is always an exciting event in our modern world.  So imagine the near hysteria of civilizations hundreds and thousands of years ago, who didn’t understand the celestial motions creating the wonder.

Many ancient cultures figured out that the Moon is repeating its eclipse times and locations every 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours.  This period is called a Saros. So after each lunar eclipse, in 6,585.32 days, the alignment of the Earth between the Sun and Moon will be exactly the same. Incredibly, the ancient Babylonians in about 200 BC figured this out and maybe the Egyptians a thousand years earlier. The April 15^th lunar eclipse is “member 56 of 75 of Saros 122,” which began on Aug. 14, 122 AD and ends Oct. 29, 2338, when a totally new Saros cycle begins. 

This April 15, 2014 lunar eclipse is also the Full Moon that determines the date for Easter. The formula for determining Easter Sunday is: Easter is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon that occurs after the Vernal Equinox.  Easter is Sunday April 20 because the Full Moon on April 15^th was the first full phase after the March 20^th first day of Spring.   

So much mythology and god worshiping has been associated with the near mystical change of the Moon for a brief time.  Human sacrifices, initiations and secret meetings all are part of the folklore and legends of lunar eclipses. Here are a few:

·      Ancient China cultures believed a three-legged frog was eating the Moon, and the Aztecs thought it was being devoured by a jaguar. Other cultures have all kinds of other animals eating the Moon, than sometimes vomiting it back up.

·      A lunar eclipse proceeded the fall of Constantinople May 29, 1453. The blow to Christendom as the Ottoman Empire sacked the famous sea port lasted until World War I.

·      A 2004 lunar eclipse also fell on the night that the Boston Red Sox won their first Baseball World Series since 1918, breaking a losing streak that started with the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.  That eclipse was even seen by fans as totality was from 10:23 to 11:45 pm.  

·      Christopher Columbus saved his live and that of his crew when he scared the aggressive natives of Jamaica by making the Moon “disappear” on March 1, 1504.  The famous explorer knew a lot of astronomy, and was aware of the predictions of lunar and solar eclipses.

During this April 15^th middle-of-the-night lunar eclipse there will be the bright, bluish star Spica below the Moon, and to the far right will be the red planet Mars.  The color of Mars and the potentially reddish total eclipsed Moon would be a nice contrast around the 4 am hour.

The color during totality from 3:08—4:23 am will be determined by the Earth’s atmosphere, not anything to do with the Moon itself.  Ash from volcanoes, man-made pollution and forest fires put particulates in the air, and when the sunlight filters through it, there can be tints of colors. 

   There is even a brightness scale proposed by Andre-Louis Danjon in 1921.  Bearing his name, the Danjon Scale is denoted by an L:

L=0 Very dark eclipse with the Moon almost invisible

L=1 Dark eclipse that is gray or brownish in color

L=2 Deep red or rust-colored eclipse.  Very dark central shadow with brighter edges

L=3 Brick-red eclipse, sometimes with a yellowish rim

L=4 Very bright copper red or orange eclipse, and there can be a bright, bluish rim.

Set the alarm clock, loose a little sleep, and go out under the Moon and watch its light be dimmed as it slips in and out of Earth’s shadow.

You can watch the celestial action from the comfort a lawn chair with a pair of binoculars and some snacks. Can determine your own “L” brightness and color on the Danjon Scale, and even take some great photos of the lunar eclipse.  Then compare your results the next day with those posted on such websites as Space Weather, Space, Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, and Universe Today.

We’ll have another total eclipse on Oct. 8, but totality begins when the Moon is setting in the morning sky.  So this is a special lunar eclipse that will worth losing sleep over.