Take some time this evening to marvel at the full moon, glimpsing the rest of Thanksgiving late at night. Have you noticed something different? It’s subtle, but on a Monday early (Sunday night if you’re on the west coast), the full moon should look a little darker than usual. That’s because you’re watching a lunar eclipse, a celestial event in which the moon sinks behind the Earth, outer shadows or penumbra.
Jackie Feherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, says penumbral eclipses are small and in some cases positive on the imperceptible. “It’s not something that will smash you in the face.”
So a Sunday night eclipse would not be as dramatic as a total lunar eclipse, in which the moon sinks into the dark inner shadow of the earth, called the ombra, which makes its surface blood red. Nor is it as surprising as a partial lunar eclipse, in which the moon slides behind the shadowy part of the uterus and looks as if some space monster has escaped by biting a giant cookie.
And it is not as astonishing as the total solar eclipse in which the new moon glides in front of the sun, leaving an extravagant, white halo in the daytime sky.
“The penumbral eclipse is still perfect for your time as an opportunity to test how much you gather in the night sky,” said Dr. Feherty. Our ancestors who lived without city lights or streetlamps, the moon provided the most useful light at night. If it ever slowed down a bit, people watched.
But our reliance on the moon’s glow has diminished as that understanding has been lost. Dr .. Fehrty suggests using a penumbral eclipse to test your sensation.
“Take the moon challenge,” said Dr. Faherty. “Really look at it. Make a basque in the moonlight and see what it looks like. Can you understand the difference? “
According to Space.com, penumbral eclipses will appear in North and South America, parts of East Asia, and Australia and the Pacific. It will start around 2:32 a.m. Eastern time.
The best time to challenge the moon would be a “great eclipse” or: 4:43 p.m. Eastern time, when the moon is 83 percent full moon in the shadow of Earth’s length, according to NASA.
But if you still aren’t sold on watching a penumbral eclipse, then you can remove this nifty fact from its appearance: it’s a harbinger of the next total solar eclipse. Lunar eclipses and solar eclipses are celestial peas in one pod. Once appeared, another follows after two weeks. And on December 14, there will be a total solar eclipse in parts of Chile and Argentina.
