Astro2110 – The Solar System

This total lunar eclipse will be the last non-partial one Earthlings can observe until 2021. There will be several partial lunar eclipses, but no totals :-/ Total lunar eclipses are the neat ones because the Moon turns yellow-y, then orange-y, then copper-y, then red! Note that this eclipse is going to be LONG – FIVE HOURS LONG. Well, the good part will be 3.5 hours long. My recommendation for observing a lunar eclipse is go look, then go do something else for at least 5 minutes, 10 minutes is probably better. Then look again and you should see a change! If you continuously look, you won’t see the gradual change.

A couple of great websites to use to investigate timing and what you can expect are:

• timeanddate.com 2019 lunar eclipse page (with specific-to-Nashville information at this part of their website – you can get any other city too)
• A concise Wikipedia page with useful diagrams and animations: January 2019 lunar eclipse
• Sky & Telescope has a useful and brief set of descriptions of all eclipses in 2019 with a lovely graphic for this particular one (reproduced below): Solar and Lunar Eclipses in 2019
• If you want the total, real, everyone-uses-these-numbers, science-jargon deal, go to the page of NASA eclipse guru Dr. Fred Espenak – Total Lunar Eclipse of 2019 Jan 21
• Want to do some science of your own? Here’s an article from Sky & Telescope: Useful Projects for a Lunar Eclipse

Lunar eclipses are visible from the whole nighttime side of Earth so lots of people get to see these (as opposed to total solar eclipses). They also don’t need any special eye protection because you don’t need any to look at the Full Moon any other time and all that’s happening is the Full Moon will get dimmer. You’ll be fine :)

Also, people are all ga-ga over “The Super Wolf Blood Moon” but you don’t need the hyperbole. It’s a cool experience regardless. If you want to know why the name is that, check out the “Trivia” at timeanddate.com

So have you ever seen an eclipse? Which kind of eclipse and what kinds of things did you notice or feelings did you have?