On the evening of September 17, a partial lunar eclipse will occur, and the Moon will turn reddish-brown as the Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon’s surface.
Partial Lunar eclipse It will be visible from most of North America, all of South America, Europe, all of eastern Africa, western parts of Asia and Russia, and parts of Antarctica.
The exact timing of the partial lunar eclipse depends on your location and you can use websites such as Time and Date.com To find specific timings based on your location. For those in the US Eastern Time Zone, the eclipse will reach its darkest phase, when the Moon is most obscured by the Earth’s shadow, at around 10:44 p.m. EST on September 17. In Europe and Africa, the eclipse will occur during the early morning hours of September 18. In London, the eclipse’s peak will be visible around 3:45 a.m. BST on September 18.
If you can’t see the lunar eclipse in person, you can watch everything that happens online here at Space.com. We’ve collected several live streams of the lunar eclipse that show the supermoon on September 17.
What are the causes of a lunar eclipse?
In a partial lunar eclipse, only part of the Moon passes into the Earth’s shadow, creating the appearance of a blurry “bite” cut out of the Moon’s surface. The shadow will darken the side of the Moon facing Earth. The size of this “bite” is determined by the alignment of the Sun, landand the moon.
About 3.5% of the Moon’s visible surface will be covered by the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, the umbra. The rest of the Moon’s surface will be covered in darkness. Full Moon It will take on a slightly reddish brown appearance as the lighter part of the ground shadow is not completely obscured. The sunMoonlight will fall on most of the moon’s surface.
A very special eclipse
A partial lunar eclipse is a very special event because it also occurs during theGiant Moon“, the second of four supermoons in a row in 2024.
A supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with the point of the moon’s closest approach to Earth in its orbit (which is elliptical). As a result, the moon It appears brighter and slightly larger than usual, although the difference is subtle and difficult to detect with the naked eye.
The term supermoon generally refers to a full moon that is within 90% of its closest point to Earth. According to Fred EspanakThe eclipse expert and retired NASA astrophysicist said that 2024 will see four supermoons, in August, September, October and November.
Lunar eclipses do not come alone.
About two weeks after the lunar eclipse, Earth will witness Annular Solar Eclipse on October 2A dazzling solar eclipse known as the “ring of fire” will be visible over parts of the Pacific Ocean, southern Chile and southern Argentina.
You can keep up with everything. Solar eclipse Follow along on our live blog for the solar eclipse. We will also be streaming the eclipse live on Space.com, and more details on how to watch online will be released soon.
Editor’s Note: If you capture a great photo of the Moon during September’s partial lunar eclipse and would like to share it with Space.com readers, send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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