Lunar Eclipse

Refracted sunlight turns the Moon a spectacular shade of red

The spectacle, which occurs when the Earth casts its shadow over the Moon happened again yesterday.  The eclipse was visible in Australia, Asia and North America.

At some points, indirect sunlight still illuminated the Moon, turning it a dramatic shade or red.

The shadow started to fall at 11:33 GMT and ended after 17:30 GMT.  The Moon was totally eclipsed for 51 minutes, 8 seconds.

Graphic showing where the eclipse was visible

Total eclipse of the Moon, December 2011.

The action began on Saturday night (local time) in Australia and Asia.  Viewers in the wester half of the United States had the best views on Saturday before dawn.  The further west one was, the better the view.

In Florida a persistent onshore flow off of the Atlantic periodically obscured the moon with stratocumulus clouds.

A near infrared shot of the eclipsing Moon.

This was the second total lunar eclipse this year; the first occurred in June.  There will be several partial eclipses in coming months but the next total eclipse will not occur until 2014.

The next lunar eclipse visible over the United States will occur on June 4, 2012.  It will not be visible in the eastern part of the USA.  The following lunar eclipse on November 28, 2012 will also be better-viewed in Western States.

Due to the periodic cloud cover over the Florida peninsula the better shots were of the full moon which periodically showed itself.

The time between full moons averages about 29.53 days.

Full Moons are traditionally associated with temporal insomnia, insanity and various magical phenomena.  There is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon.

A fading contrail from a passing jet with the rising Moon.

The December full Moon is referred to as the Cold Moon.  However, it was not cold in Florida.  Temperatures were in the low 70°s F. (21° C.) for the "Cold Moon."

Also sometimes called the Frost Moon, Winter Moon, or Long Night's Moon. . . mostly it was just a nice Moon reflecting on the drying lakes and ponds of Central Florida.

The weather forecast is for our dry weather to finally come to an end, however brief it might be.  A stiff onshore flow is forecast to develop overnight and into Sunday, December 11th, bringing us much needed rainfall.  We have not had measurable rainfall in 6 weeks.

This morning heavy bands of rain dropped up to 7.00 inches (177 mm) of rain on parts of Brevard, Indian River and St. Lucie counties.  We're still waiting for our rain a little further north.

The overnight forecast for the central Florida peninsula predicts increasingly strong north to northeast winds over coastal counties which should result in scattered rainfall during the day on Sunday.

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN

Time to plan ahead to view the next total eclipse of the sun to occur on May 20, 2012.  It will be an annular eclipse which means the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun.  Thus the Sun appears as a very bright ring surrounding the outline of the Moon (below).

Read more about upcoming eclipses at NASA's Eclipse Page

Redding, California lies 18 miles (30 km) south of the central line of the May 20 annular eclipse.  It will be late afternoon along this section of the eclipse path with the sun at an altitude of 20° during the annular phase and decreasing as the track heads southeast.  Central Nevada, southern Utah, and northern Arizona are all within the path.  By the time the eclipse reaches Albuquerque, New Mexico, the sun's altitude will have dropped to 5°.