Skygazers greeted to celestial treat
Skygazers with a clear view in North America and Europe were greeted
with a celestial treat in the early morning hours Tuesday, as a unique
total lunar eclipse was to transform the Moon pink, coppery or even a
blood red. Coinciding eerily with the northern hemisphere's mid-winter
solstice - for the first time in almost four centuries - the eclipse
began showing the Sun, the Earth and its satellite as they directly
aligned, with the Moon swinging into the cone of shadow cast by its
mother planet.
Despite being in shadow, the Moon did not become invisible, though,
as there is still residual light that is deflected towards it by our
atmosphere. Most of this refracted light is in the red part of the
spectrum and as a result the Moon, seen from Earth, turns a reddish,
coppery or orange hue, sometimes even brownish.
NASA's veteran eclipse expert Fred Espenak explained that while the
entire event was to be visible from North America, Greenland and
Iceland, western Europe sees the beginning stages before moonset and
western Asia gets the later stages after moonrise.
The eclipse was to run for three and a half hours, from 0633 GMT to
1001 GMT, although the stage of total eclipse - when the Moon heads into
the "umbra" cast by the Earth - lasts from 0741 to 0853 GMT.
Two factors affect an eclipse's colour and brightness, said the US
astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope."The first is simply how deeply the
Moon goes into the umbra. The centre of the umbra is much darker than
its edges," it says.
"The other factor is the state of Earth's atmosphere along the
sunrise-sunset line. If the air is very clear, the eclipse is bright.
But if a major volcanic eruption has polluted the stratosphere with thin
haze, the eclipse will be dark red, ashen gray, or blood-black."
WASHINGTON, AFP
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