2nd ‘bloody moon’ this year appears
While it's not rare to get two lunar eclipses in one year, otherwise known as bloody moons, I would definitely call it a celestial bonus.
Our first one May 15 to 16 was a prime-time show beginning in the early evening.
This week's total lunar eclipse is on the graveyard shift, beginning just after 4 a.m. this coming Tuesday morning, Nov. 8. I advise setting your alarm for around 3:30 a.m., giving you enough time to shake off the cobwebs, make some coffee, and head outside for the show.
Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth is nearly in a straight line between the sun and the moon, causing the moon to slip into the Earth's shadow.
The sun, Earth and moon don't have to be in an exact line for an eclipse to happen. That's because at the distance of the moon, the Earth's shadow, known as the umbra, is just over 5,500 miles wide. Since the moon is less than 2,200 miles in diameter, it's relatively easy to slip into the Earth's shadow.
We don't have a lunar eclipse every full moon because the moon's 27.3-day orbit around the Earth is tilted by five degrees in respect to Earth's 365-day orbit around the sun. Because of that, during most full moons, the moon misses the Earth's shadow.
This time around, however, the full moon is near one of the points where the moon's orbital plane intersects the Earth's orbital plane. In other words, the moon is the right place at the right time for a total lunar eclipse.
Right around 4:09 a.m. early Tuesday morning when the moon is shining away in the high southwest heavens, you'll start to see a dark notch growing on the upper left side of the lunar disk.
You can't help but notice that the shadow has a circular edge as it creeps across the lunar surface, visual proof that the Earth is indeed round because of the circular shadow.
From 5:15 until 6:41 a.m., just before sunrise, the moon will be totally eclipsed but still visible. It could take on a bright orange to bloody red hue and will be the darkest at mid-totality around 6 a.m. when the moon is closest to the center of the Earth's umbra shadow.
No one can predict exactly what hue the eclipsed moon will take, and only the shadow knows what the Earth's umbra shadow is.
The umbra shadow opposite the sun is not totally dark because some of the sun's light manages to get through our Earth's atmosphere and then onto the umbra.
The sunlight that does get through is bent and strained as it comes through our atmosphere. All the blue and yellow components of the sun's light are scattered away, leaving just the reddish part of the sun's light that bathes the eclipsed moon.
The shade of red light reaching the moon depends on the Earth's atmospheric conditions.
No matter the shade of red the moon takes, it will be beautiful and perfectly safe to view without optical aid. You don't have to look through any special glasses or anything.
An occasional gander through a telescope at the eclipsed moon is nice. Still, I think it's a beautiful experience to watch it with just your natural eyesight or maybe a pair of binoculars. You want to take in as much eye candy as possible!
However, with a telescope during totality, you'll see the moon pass in front of or eclipse several stars. These are called occultations.
Not only does the moon travel east to west across the sky, but it also takes a much slower eastward migration among the background of stars as it orbits the Earth.
Usually, it's hard to see these stellar eclipses because of the moon's brightness, but it's much easier with the moon going through a "power failure" during totality.
Also, because the moon has no atmosphere, you'll see stars popping out of view on the eastern side of the moon's disk and popping into view on the western side.
Enjoy the early morning blood moon Tuesday morning. It's worth losing sleep because there won't be another one around until March 2025!
Mike Lynch is a retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of "Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations," published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
