There is so much excitement about the lunar eclipse Sunday night, my son’s 4th grade teacher sent out a text reminding parents and ‘understanding there will be many tired kids’ in the morning. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or just love a good sky show, this is setting up to be a high volume event. Since this is a super moon, it will be slightly larger than normal as the moon is now in the closest part of its orbit. The only caveat is the weather, and the fizzling east coast storm is providing more hope for the Mid Atlantic to see it. Below is a great animation showing the time and what you should see.
One thing to point out is the difference between a solar eclipse which is a narrow band on Earth where the complete shadow covers roughly 100 miles in width. An eclipse of the moon is when it passes behind the shadow of earth, blocking the light from the sun. So if you are anywhere on the night side of Earth, the view will be the same for all. The time of the total eclipse will last one hour and twelve minutes. See more key times below.
Key Terms:
Penumbra: Outer, partial shadow. Sun’s disc is only partly blocked, with a bit peeking over the edge.
Umbra: Inner core of total darkness. The disc of the Sun is completely blocked. However, light scatters around Earth’s atmosphere and still reaches the moon, which is why it appears red.
What is special about this event, is that the total eclipse time, or duration the moon is in the umbra and penumbra, will be three hours and twenty minutes.
Will you see something like this? This composite image still one of my favorites from Kate Lall in our 2010 sky show. See the top 10 photo gallery from our last full lunar eclipse was October 8, 2014.
Key Times (EDT)
Should the weather cooperate (see cloud forecast below), the moon will rise as normal, visibly full and white.
3 hours and twenty minutes of time for all visible partial phases
1 hour and twelve minutes of total eclipse
- 6:47 PM Moonrise. Look due east. But if there are trees, hills, or buildings in your way, you might not see the moon for another half hour or so.
- 9:07 PM Partial eclipse will be visible
- 10:11 PM Total eclipse will be visible
- 10:47PM Total eclipse at maximum view and deepest blood red color
- 11:23 PM Total eclipse ends.
- 12:27 AM (Monday) Partial eclipse ends
We will not see another total lunar eclipse until January 31, 2018. We will be near the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. That will be a special event.
Lunar Eclipse Timing Animation:
The Supermoon Total Lunar Eclipse of September 27-28 2015 from Michael Zeiler on Vimeo.
Weather? Latest cloud forecast maps
Global View
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