The March 3 whole lunar eclipse: a recap

This picture, taken throughout totality, reveals the distinction observers famous between the brightness of the 2 halves of the Moon. It additionally captures the coppery-red colour.
Credit: David Abbou

Early this morning, I watched the entire eclipse of the Moon from my observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Yesterday (Monday, March 2) was largely clear with a cerulean blue sky all through, a excessive temperature close to 90 levels Fahrenheit (32 levels Celsius), and only a little bit of a breeze, so I had excessive hopes that I’d see the occasion. My spouse, Holley, additionally noticed a number of the eclipse, however her job isn’t as forgiving as mine, so as soon as totality started, she went off to mattress.

I additionally invited a neighbor who was internet hosting a number of out of city visitors. They arrived round 3:30 a.m. I first confirmed them the Ring Nebula (earlier than their eyes grew to become used to the brightness of the Moon via my optics), and I answered a bunch of questions within the lead as much as totality.

For observing, I had ready my 6-inch Astro-Tech AT152EDT apochromatic refractor and 4-inch Oberwerk binoculars, which, with the eyepieces I selected, gave a magnification of 40x. I used a wide range of eyepieces within the refractor, which has a focal ratio of f/8 and a focal size of 1,216 millimeters. Initially, I screwed a 0.9 impartial density filter right into a 24mm eyepiece. Such a filter cuts out 90 % of the Moon’s gentle with out altering the general colour. Even then, our lone pure satellite tv for pc appeared vivid.

Conditions had been good. Not a cloud within the sky, an ideal temperature (I used to be in a t-shirt), and the celebs weren’t twinkling, indicating that the environment above me was regular.

The penumbral part of the eclipse — the place the Moon passes via Earth’s lighter, outer shadow — started at 1:43 a.m. CST. I didn’t discover any darkening for the primary 20 minutes or so. But few observers are nervous about this half. The motion begins at first of the partial eclipse, when Luna begins to dip into our planet’s darker, internal shadow, which is known as the umbra. That stated, because the partial part approached, I may see a noticeable darkening on the Moon’s northern edge.

The partial part started at 2:49 a.m. CST, and even within the first couple of minutes I may see Earth’s umbra starting to chop a darkish, curved swath throughout the face of the Moon. Through the binoculars, it was as if a grey filter was slowly protecting the Moon’s floor. Features had been seen in that half, however in fact they weren’t as simple to see as those within the vivid space. Also, because the partial part continued, I seen extra stars turning into seen.

Totality started at 4:03 a.m. CST. And though the trailing fringe of the Moon appeared brighter than the aspect that first entered the umbra, there was a noticeable improve within the variety of stars that we may see. What a magical time!

Mid-eclipse, when the Moon is deepest in Earth’s shadow, occurred at 4:33 a.m. CST. This is the purpose once I assess two elements: 1) the colour of the Moon; and a pair of) how darkish the Moon seems. For its colour, Luna positively took on an orange-red look, which was most obvious via my refractor. Was it a “blood” Moon? Maybe to some individuals. And as to its darkness, I judged this eclipse as medium-dark. The Moon definitely didn’t disappear, however its gentle actually diminished so much. In truth, proper round mid-totality, I walked outdoors my observatory and will simply see the Milky Way rising within the east behind the Rincon Mountains.

Interestingly, when totality started, many of the Moon was throughout the boundaries of the constellation Sextans the Sextant. At mid-totality, nonetheless, Luna had moved sufficient in order that it was solely throughout the constellation Leo the Lion. Also, simply after the start of totality, the Moon’s disc occulted (lined) NGC 3423, an Eleventh-magnitude spiral galaxy in Sextans. Because of the distinction in brightness between the galaxy and even the eclipsed Moon, the occasion was unobservable.

OK, one last confession. I’m primarily a deep-sky object observer, so I couldn’t assist myself from some distant targets throughout totality. Those included the Sombrero Galaxy (M104), the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), globular cluster M4 in Scorpius, and a number of other others. All throughout Full Moon! Well, an eclipsed Full Moon.

With the following good whole lunar eclipse within the U.S. not till the beginning of summer time 2029, I made it some extent to be available for this one, and I had a blast. I hope you probably did, too!