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.
