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Lunar Eclipse
Lunar Eclipse
On the night of 15th June, 2011 more than half the world will have the opportunity to watch one of the
darkest Lunar eclipses. People living in eastern Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and western Australia will have opportunity to observe the entire eclipse, from beginning to end. At mid-eclipse the Moon will be overhead at Mauritius. Observers in eastern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina will witness totality. However, none of the eclipse will be visible from North America. This will be the darkest lunar eclipse in almost 100 years as the centres of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon would nearly be on one straight line. The earlier darkest lunar eclipse was observed on August 6, 1971 and the next one would be 47 years from now on on June 6th, 2058. Other than the near perfect alignment of these solar system bodies, the atmosphere plays its role too in the darkenss of the eclipsed Moon. It may let some refracted stray light onto the Moon's surface (Earthshine), hence reducing the darkness. The eclipse of June 15th may also be one of the darkest due to the ashes thrown into the Earth's atmosphere by the recent eruption of Iceland's most active volcano, Grimsvotn. The author remembers the total lunar eclipse on the night of of December 9, 1992. It was such a dark lunar lunar eclipse that close to mid-eclipse the sky was completely dark and one could see faint stars too. The Moon itself was difficult to spot. The Moon was to the north of Orion constellation. That year, on June 15, Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines, erupted for about 9 hours during which it discharged something like 15 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. (It was L 0 on the Danjon scale. See below for the explanation of Danjon) This year in addition to the ashes from Grimsvotn, the Earth's atmosphere is still contaminated with ashes of last year's eruption of volcano Eyjafjallajokull. It would really be interesting to see how dark the eclipse of Jun 15, 2011 would be.
(The diagram above not to the scale and it is for the purpose of illustration only.) You can see the Umbra and Penumbra region by looking at a shadow of a disk (say a 50p coin) kept at a distance from a sheet of paper. You can see that the central part of the shadow to be dark but getting diffused and lighter towards the edge of the shadow.
The circumstances of the total Lunar eclipse for India (IST) on 15/16 June 2011
2011 Jun 15 Jun 15 Jun 16 Jun 16 Jun 16 Jun 16 Jun 16 stage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Phase Moon enters penumbra Moon enters umbra Start of totality Maximum eclipse End of totality Moon leaves umbra Moon leaves penumbra time (IST) 22:52:52 23:52:24 00:51:57 01:42:24 02:32:50 03:32:22 04:32:02
The diagram above shows various stages of passage of the Moon through the Earths shadow region Duration of the Penumbral Phase : 5h 39m 10s - the Moon will travel about 21,400 k.m. Duration of the Umbral Phase : 3h 39m 58s -the moon will travel about 13,100 k.m. Duration of the total Phase: 1h 40m 52s -the Moon will travel about 9,630 k.m. (at the rate of about 1.6 km/sec)
The side of the Earth as seen from the Moon at various stages of eclipse
Why would the Moon look red in colour during the total phase
The Earth's atmosphere plays it's role here. If the Earth had no atmosphere the Moon would have 'simply vanished' from the sky at the total phase. However the Earth's atmosphere plays a role - exactly the same way it does with the rising or setting Sun (or Moon).
As the sunlight passes through the atmosphere of the Earth, the light is scattered and bent slightly. The light is scattered by the constituent atmospheric particles. The blue component of the sunlight is scattered most but the red rays pass through. Absence of the blue rays and presence of the red rays make rising or setting Sun appear red in colour. And the bending of like takes place as it goes from one medium to other, it this case from vacuum to the Earth's atmosphere. Some of the red rays escape or come out of the Earth's atmosphere reaching the Moon and giving the Eclipsed Moon its red hue. As indicated above the Earth's atmosphere contaminated by the volcanic ash is likely to have its pronounced effect on how dark the eclipsed moon would be..
When the Moon is between blue and red lines we see the full moon but no eclipse. As one can see form the above diagram The Earth Moon distance is very large and the orbital inclination is just about 5 degrees that on the night of full moon the the Moon and the Sun are in opposite side of the Earth and therefore the side of the Moon facing the Earth is seen fully illuminated by the sunlight.
and brightness of the Moon during total lunar eclipses. 'L' values for various luminosities are defined as follows:
L = 0 L = 1 L = 2 Very dark eclipse. Moon almost invisible, especially at mid-totality. Dark Eclipse, gray or brownish in coloration. Details distinguishable only with difficulty. Deep red or rust-colored eclipse. Very dark central shadow, while outer edge of umbra is relatively bright. Brick-red eclipse. Umbral shadow usually has a bright or yellow rim. Very bright copper-red or orange eclipse. Umbral shadow has a bluish, very bright rim.
L = 3 L = 4
The assignment of an 'L' value to lunar eclipses is best done with the naked eye, binoculars or a small telescope near the time of mid-totality.