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Total Eclipse Of The Harvest Moon – The Heavens have Saved the Best for Last – Enjoy the Show! (+Video)
This Sunday, Sept. 27th, the super Harvest Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a lovely amber total lunar eclipse.
According to folklore, the Harvest Moon is the full Moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox the hectic beginning of northern autumn.
In 2015, the Moon is full on Sept. 28th less than a week after the equinox of Sept. 23rd.
This year’s Harvest Moon is not like the others.
It’s going to be eclipsed.
On the night of Sept. 27th and into the early hours of Sept. 28th, the full Moon will glide through the shadow of Earth, turning the Harvest Moon a golden-red color akin to autumn leaves.
The action begins at 9:07 PM Eastern Time on the evening of Sept. 27th, when the edge of the Moon first enters the amber core of Earth’s shadow.
For the next three hours and 18 minutes, Earth’s shadow will move across the lunar disk.
Totality begins at 10:11 PM Eastern Time.
That’s when the Moon is completely enveloped by the shadow of our planet.
Totality lasts for an hour and 12 minutes, so there is plenty of time to soak up the suddenly-red moonlight.
The reason the Moon turns red maybe found in the surface of the Moon itself.
Using your imagination fly to the Moon and stand inside a dusty lunat crater
Overhead hangs Earth, nightside facing you completely hiding the Sun behind it. The eclipse is underway.
You might suppose that the Earth overhead would be completely dark
After all, you’re looking at the nightside of our planet.
Instead something amazing happens.
When the Sun is located directly behind Earth, the rim of the planet seems to catch fire!
The darkened terrestrial disk is ringed by every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all at once.
This light filters into the heart of Earth’s shadow, suffusing it with a coppery glow.
Back on Earth, the shadowed Moon becomes a great red orb.
The full Moon of Sept. 28th occurs near the perigee of the Moon’s orbit (that is the point closest to Earth).
This makes the Harvest Moon a ‘Supermoon.’
The super Harvest Moon eclipse will be visible from the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
It brings an end to a remarkable series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, (visible from North America) a so-called ‘tetrad.’
Perhaps the heavens have saved the best for last
If you live in the eclipse zone, mark your calendar for Sept. 27-28, and enjoy the show.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2015/22sep_lunareclipse/
Video credit: NASA
