Month: November 2020

Beaver Full Moon Lunar Eclipse Nov. 30!

Catch a faint penumbral eclipse of the moon this Monday, Nov. 30.  In the US, it’ll be early in the morning–4:22 a.m. EST and 1:22 a.m. PST.  In Asia, it’ll be in the evening.  

More info here and below from Space.com.

A Beaver Full Moon lunar eclipse occurs Monday. Here’s what to expect.

By Joe Rao

The Nov. 29-30 penumbral lunar eclipse will be a minor moon event.

Early on Monday morning (Nov. 30), careful skywatchers across all of North America can watch the full moon undergo a slight penumbral eclipse. 

The moon will take 4 hours and 21 minutes to glide across the pale outer fringe (penumbra) of Earth’s shadow, never reaching the shadow’s dark umbra. However, penumbral lunar eclipses are rather subtle events which are usually difficult for most people to detect unless at least 70% of the moon’s diameter is immersed within it.

In this particular case the November full moon, known as a Beaver moon, is going to pass rather deep into the penumbra. In fact, at the moment of the deepest phase/greatest eclipse (09:42 UT) the penumbra will cover 82.9% of the lunar disk. Put another way, the uppermost limb of the moon will be 566 miles (911 kilometers) away from the unseen edge of the much darker umbral shadow of the Earth.   

Phases of the Beaver moon lunar eclipse  

About 20 minutes prior to the deepest phase of the eclipse, you might see some evidence of this faint penumbral shading on the moon’s upper edge. This corresponds to around 4:22 a.m. EST (0922 GMT); 3:22 a.m. CST; 2:22 a.m. MT and 1:22 a.m. PST.  About 70% of the moon’s diameter will be immersed in the penumbra, so any unusual shading on the upper part of the moon should — in theory — be detectable. Some might even detect lesser traces of penumbral shading for some minutes beforehand. 

After about 20 minutes, we will arrive at the deepest and most obvious part of the eclipse; the moon’s upper limb should appear sensibly shaded with a light charcoal gray or brownish colored hue. 

After the deepest phase has passed, you might be able to perceive a slight darkening or “smudginess” on the moon’s right edge for around 20 additional minutes. So, while the moon will be inside the penumbral shadow for over 260 minutes, most will probably only be aware of it for only about 40 minutes.

The penumbral eclipse will also be detectable from parts of the Caribbean and South America as the moon sets.  For observers in east-central Asia, Indonesia and Australia it happens on Monday evening as the moon is rising. At mid-eclipse, the moon will appear in the zenith (directly overhead) over the North Pacific Ocean, not far from the Hawaiian Islands. From the 50th state, greatest eclipse comes late on Sunday night as the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend winds down, at 11:42 p.m. Hawaii Time. 

Halloween Full Moon!

There was a rare full moon + blue moon for Halloween this year.  Did you see it?  Catch it waning tonight and for the rest of the week.  

Here’s more from CNET:

This Halloween’s Blue Moon Will Bring a Rare Treat to the Skies

For the first time since World War II, people in all parts of the world will be able to see the Oct. 31 display.

Halloween may look different this year due to coronavirus restrictions, but at least we can enjoy a spooky spectacle in the sky: a rare second-in-the-month full moon to cap off a month of glorious skywatching. 

The full moon that will be visible on Oct. 31 is called the blue moon because it’s the second full moon of the same month — following the harvest moon of Oct. 1 through Oct. 3. And in a rare treat, the 2020 Halloween full moon will be visible to the entire world, rather than just parts of it, for the first time since World War II.

“When I was teaching, my high school students thought a full moon occurred every Halloween,” astronomy educator and former planetarium director Jeffrey Hunt told me. Not quite, though pop culture decorations sure make it seem that way. The last Halloween full moon visible around the globe came in 1944, he said. He’s written about the event on his web site, When the Curves Line Up. There was a Halloween full moon for some locations in 1955, but that didn’t include western North America and the western Pacific, Hunt says. 

While this year’s Halloween full moon will be visible in all parts of the globe, that doesn’t mean every single citizen will have a view. Residents across both North America and South America will see it, as will Africa, all of Europe and much of Asia. But while Western Australians will see it, those in the central and eastern parts of the country will not. 

Know time zones well? “Every time zone has it except those east of (GMT) +8 time zones if they have daylight time, or (GMT) +9 with no daylight time,” Hunt says.

Want to see the Halloween full moon? It’s so bright at the full phase it doesn’t matter if you’re in a crowded city or out on the farm. And you don’t need pricey equipment.

“Walk outside, and take a look,” Hunt says.