![]() ![]() A sharp-eyed observer will notice that one side of the full Moon’s disk looks a little dusky. If the Moon ventures just partly into the umbra, as pictured here, only the partial phases occur - you’ll see some of the Moon in nearly full sunlight, and some of it steeped in the deep, red-tinged umbral shadow.Īnd if its disk passes just outside the umbra, the Moon still encounters the weak penumbral shadow cast by Earth. That was the case during the widely viewed event in September 2015, which marked the conclusion of a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses! Such eclipse tetrads are not common - the last one occurred during 2003–04, but the next won’t begin until 2032. If the Moon goes all the way in, we see a total lunar eclipse that’s preceded and followed by partial phases. Three types of lunar eclipse are possible ( total, partial, and penumbral), depending on how deeply the full Moon plunges into or near the umbra, our planet’s dark, central shadow.Ī long-exposure image captured red hues on the portion of the Moon inside the umbra during the lunar eclipse on October 8, 2014. So since the last eclipse of 2022 occurred in early November, the first eclipse of 2023 doesn’t take place until April 20th. (The technical name for that, by the way, is syzygy.) And, as the diagram above implies, those alignments occur roughly a half year apart. These alignments don’t happen at every new and full Moon because the lunar orbit is tipped about 5° to Earth’s orbital plane - only occasionally do the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up exactly enough for an eclipse to occur. in August 2017, occurs only at new Moon, when the lunar disk passes directly between us and the Sun and consequently the Moon’s shadow falls somewhere on Earth’s surface.Ĭonversely, a lunar eclipse takes place during full Moon, when our satellite passes through Earth’s shadow. Eclipse “windows” occur six months apart.īefore describing this year’s individual events, let’s explore some eclipse basics.Ī solar eclipse, such as the one seen coast to coast across the U.S. Cutchin covers business in the Coachella Valley.Eclipses of the Sun or Moon can only occur when the Moon crosses the plane of Earth's orbit (orange circle) very close to the time of new or full Moon. "It will be much more viewer-friendly than the one this time - except for for the night owls." "That will be a great event for families with young kids," Victor said of the May eclipse. An early-evening lunar eclipse will occur on May 15 and another will take place in the early morning hours of Nov. Victor said he anticipates the moon might not be very visible during the early stages of the eclipse, but will likely become clearer towards the "deepest eclipse" around 1 a.m.įor those who miss Thursday's lunar eclipse, two similar events are anticipated in 2022. The National Weather Service predicts Thursday evenings' skies will be partly cloudy - a tentative improvement on the last eclipse's conditions, but no guarantee of a strong showing. Victor noted that the last lunar eclipse in the Coachella Valley six months prior was difficult to observe due to cloudy weather. Weather also plays a role, with cloud cover or other phenomenon frequently diminishing the visibility of the eclipses. For obvious reasons, they are only visible from the nighttime side of the Earth, meaning that anyone on the daytime side of the planet would not see anything unusual during the events. Lunar eclipses occur approximately once every six months. Victor noted that a tiny sliver of the moon's southern edge would not be covered in tonight's eclipse, resulting in a narrow edge of silvery-white during the event. ![]() The result is a reddish-brown moon caused, according to Victor, by the refraction of light through Earth's atmosphere on its way to the moon. "The Earth casts a shadow pointing away from the sun," said Robert Victor, a retired astronomer and member of the Astronomical Society of the Desert. "The moon moves into that shadow tonight." Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth moves in between the sun and the moon, blocking much of the sun's light from reaching what might otherwise be a bright full moon. The event, which will see the full moon turn a brownish-red as it is covered by the earth's shadow, will begin around 11:15 p.m. ![]() A near-total lunar eclipse is expected to be visible across the Coachella Valley late Thursday night and early Friday morning. ![]()
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