[TriLUG] OT: Total lunar eclipse sunday night - monday morning 20-21 Jan (this weekend)

[Joseph Mack NA3T via TriLUG]

I hope this isn't too OT. I expect most people who're interested in this sort of 
thing already know about it.

There hasn't been a total lunar eclipse here since (I think) 2017 and there 
won't be one for another couple of years.

The eclipse is for 1hr 4mins about midnight sun-mon this weekend. Forecast

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?w0=t&w1=td&w2=wc&w3=sfcwind&w3u=1&w4=sky&w5=pop&w6=rh&w7=rain&w8=thunder&w9=snow&w10=fzg&w11=sleet&w13u=0&w16u=1&w17u=1&AheadHour=0&FcstType=graphical&textField1=35.994&textField2=-78.8986&site=all&unit=1&dd=&bw=&AheadDay.x=18&AheadDay.y=12https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?w0=t&w1=td&w2=wc&w3=sfcwind&w3u=1&w4=sky&w5=pop&w6=rh&w7=rain&w8=thunder&w9=snow&w10=fzg&w11=sleet&w13u=0&w16u=1&w17u=1&AheadHour=0&FcstType=graphical&textField1=35.994&textField2=-78.8986&site=all&unit=1&dd=&bw=&AheadDay.x=18&AheadDay.y=12

is for 50% cloud cover during the eclipse. You should get a pretty good idea 
of what a total lunar eclipse looks like between the clouds.

for those of us working, monday is a holiday (MLK day), so you don't have to get 
up the next morning and the kids don't have to go to school.

The total eclipse is only thing interesting visually. The moon dims when it 
enters the penumbra, but the eye isn't sensitive enough to detect the dimming.

Totality is about 1:04 hrs.

The eclipse is chordal (ie not through the diameter of earth's shadow), so one 
side of the moon will be relatively bright and the dark side won't be black, but 
red.

the chordal path is shown in an animation on

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2019_lunar_eclipse

times are from

https://earthsky.org/?p=295245

Eastern Time
Partial umbral eclipse begins: 10:34 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Total lunar eclipse begins: 11:41 p.m. (January 20, 2019)
Greatest eclipse: 12:12 a.m. (January 21, 2019)
Total lunar eclipse ends: 12:43 a.m. (January 21, 2019)
Partial umbral eclipse ends: 1:51 a.m. (January 21, 2019)

For an explanation of why the moon is red, rather than black, during a total 
eclipse, see

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/1/16/18167039/lunar-eclipse-2019-blood-moon-
supermoon

where the moon is seeing sunsets and sunrises on the earth

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant
map generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!