Early risers and frustrated passengers waiting for Eurostar services were greeted by a total lunar eclipse this morning. In eerie scenes, the cloudy sky gradually darkened as the earth's shadow moved across the moon from around 6.32am this morning. The total eclipse began at 7.40am, with the moon close to the western horizon, and was expected to last for around 73 minutes. During a lunar eclipse the earth, sun and moon are almost exactly in line with each other. As they line up, the earth’s shadow passes across the surface of the full moon. At first the shadow appears as a tiny bite in one side of the moon, before it engulfs the moon entirely. Once the moon has moved into the shadow it is lit by sunlight that has passed through the earth’s atmosphere. The sunlight that hits the craters and plains of the lunar surface has a spooky reddish tinge. It is impossible to predict the colour of a lunar eclipse in advance. On rare occasions it goes entirely black. But it can appear copper, brown or blood red depending on how far it goes into shadow and whether the atmosphere is polluted with dust from volcanoes.(Daily Mail)Tuesday 21 December 2010
Total lunar eclipse coincides with Winter Solstice for first time in almost 400 years
Early risers and frustrated passengers waiting for Eurostar services were greeted by a total lunar eclipse this morning. In eerie scenes, the cloudy sky gradually darkened as the earth's shadow moved across the moon from around 6.32am this morning. The total eclipse began at 7.40am, with the moon close to the western horizon, and was expected to last for around 73 minutes. During a lunar eclipse the earth, sun and moon are almost exactly in line with each other. As they line up, the earth’s shadow passes across the surface of the full moon. At first the shadow appears as a tiny bite in one side of the moon, before it engulfs the moon entirely. Once the moon has moved into the shadow it is lit by sunlight that has passed through the earth’s atmosphere. The sunlight that hits the craters and plains of the lunar surface has a spooky reddish tinge. It is impossible to predict the colour of a lunar eclipse in advance. On rare occasions it goes entirely black. But it can appear copper, brown or blood red depending on how far it goes into shadow and whether the atmosphere is polluted with dust from volcanoes.(Daily Mail)