Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Ask an Expert: Stay 'Up All Night' to Watch the Oct. 8 Lunar Eclipse!

Join NASA experts on Oct. 8 to observe 2014's second total lunar eclipse. A live Ustream feed of the eclipse will be offered.

Mainly clear skies should make for very good viewing of the total lunar eclipse early Wednesday morning. It will be a bit chilly with temperatures generally ranging from the upper 30s to middle 40s. The total eclipse phase is expected to begin around 525 am CDT, and end around 625 am CDT, viewable low in the western sky.

The moon will appear a coppery red, so it's been called a "blood" moon. It'll look red because of all the sunsets and sunrises from the Earth that will reflect onto the lunar surface. (During the eclipse, although it's completely in the shadow of Earth, a bit of reddish sunlight still reaches the moon.)

You don't need special glasses or gizmos to view it, unlike a solar eclipse, so feel free to stare directly at the moon. Binoculars or a telescope would improve the view.


A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and the full moon form a nearly straight line so that the full moon passes through the Earth's shadow, called the umbra.