StarDate

Lunar Eclipse


Listen Later

Some eclipses are spectacular, such as the annular solar eclipse of a couple of weeks ago. Others — well, not so much.

An example of the latter comes up tomorrow — a partial lunar eclipse. The full Moon — the Hunter’s Moon — will pass through the outer portion of Earth’s shadow, the penumbra. That part of the shadow isn’t very dark, so most people won’t really notice a difference in the Moon’s appearance.

Midway through the eclipse, the Moon will barely dip into the dark inner shadow, the umbra. At most, that part of the shadow will cover just six percent of the Moon — like someone carved a notch at the bottom of the lunar disk.

There’s a relationship between this month’s eclipses: They’re members of the same eclipse season.

Eclipses occur when the Moon crosses Earth’s orbit at just the right time, bringing Moon, Earth, and Sun into alignment. The alignment happens twice, about two weeks apart — an eclipse season. One alignment creates a solar eclipse, while the other creates a lunar eclipse. They can happen in either order. And if one eclipse is especially good — like this month’s annular eclipse — the other is usually poor — like tomorrow’s.

At least part of the eclipse will be visible across most of the globe. From the United States, though, only the northeastern states and northern Alaska will see any of it, and only for a few minutes — the final play of an eclipse season.

Script by Damond Benningfield

Support McDonald Observatory

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

StarDateBy Billy Henry

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

247 ratings


More shows like StarDate

View all
Science Friday by Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science Friday

6,097 Listeners

Big Picture Science by Big Picture Science

Big Picture Science

935 Listeners

BirdNote Daily by BirdNote

BirdNote Daily

1,190 Listeners

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science by The Planetary Society

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

1,343 Listeners

Science Magazine Podcast by Science Magazine

Science Magazine Podcast

809 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

43,940 Listeners

Astronomy Cast by Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay

Astronomy Cast

2,864 Listeners

The 365 Days of Astronomy by 365DaysOfAstronomy.org

The 365 Days of Astronomy

337 Listeners

StarTalk Radio by Neil deGrasse Tyson

StarTalk Radio

14,102 Listeners

Universe Today Podcast by Fraser Cain

Universe Today Podcast

540 Listeners

Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries by Professor Fred Watson and Andrew Dunkley

Space Nuts: Astronomy Insights & Cosmic Discoveries

222 Listeners

SpaceTime: Your Guide to Space & Astronomy by Stuart Gary

SpaceTime: Your Guide to Space & Astronomy

318 Listeners

Garrison Keillor's Podcast by Prairie Home Productions

Garrison Keillor's Podcast

1,129 Listeners

This Week in Space (Audio) by TWiT

This Week in Space (Audio)

135 Listeners

The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu by theliuniverse

The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

49 Listeners