img source: pixabay
In roughly two days from now many parts of the world would be experiencing a Total Lunar Eclipse. I am excited about the possibility of witnessing one first hand as I have never. The last eclipse that occurred in Nigeria was in March 29 2006 and that was a Solar Eclipse. I wasn't able to witness that because the city I was at the time of the eclipse only witnessed a partial eclipse.
Thankfully, this time a good portion of West Africa will see the total eclipse. I love all things space and moon and stars, I am therefore very much interested in these occurrences . But what is an Eclipse and what causes it?
What is an Eclipse?
img source: pixabay
The moon revolves around the earth and the earth around the sun, each in its own orbit in a cosmic dance that is controlled by gravity. Sometimes in the cause this revolutions, these celestial bodies become aligned. An Eclipse is the obscuring of light by one body on another as a result of a third celestial body coming in between them.
When the earth comes between the sun and moon its called a Lunar Eclipse, in this case the earth casts its shadow on the moon causing it to turn red. When the moon comes between the earth and the sun, its called a Solar Eclipse. In this post I'll be focusing on the Lunar Eclipse since that's what we're expecting.
The Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)
The moon completes its journey around the earth once every 28 days, but lunar eclipses do not happen every month, why is this? The reason is, the path of the moon around the sun is not in perfect alignment with the path of the earth around the sun. When the alignment checks out, we have a Lunar Eclipse or Blood Moon. I've mentioned Blood Moon a number of times now, I guess its time to discuss it.
When the earth comes between the moon and sun, the shadow of the earth is cast on the moon, since the moon produces no light of its own (the moon only reflects the light of the sun), we expect to see nothing or to see just a black object. But this is not what happens, the moon turns red instead.
There are three parts of shadow cast by an object when light shines on it, they are the umbra, penumbra and antumbra.
img source: Wikipedia
The umbra is the darkest part of the shadow, in an eclipse when the earth or moon is in this region depending on if its a Solar or Lunar eclipse, the eclipse is said to be a Total Eclipse. Next is the penumbra, this region is not as dark as the umbra, eclipses in this region is known as a Partial Eclipse. When the body is in the antumbra region, its called an Annular Eclipse.
The blood moon occurs in the umbra region. When the earth blocks out light from the sun, the colors of visible light are abbreviated as ROYGBIV, with R-Red having the longest wavelength and V-Violet having the shortest wavelength. Light of shorter wavelength gets dispersed while those of longer wavelengths get bent inward. Red has the longest wavelength in the visible range hence the reason for the red color of the moon and the name Blood Moon. Some animals might be able to see beyond the visible range, so you might want to ask your pet what he/she sees.
img source: pixabay
The Americas will be in the thick of the action and will see the most complete Total Eclipse, some part of Africa and Europe will also see some Total while other places will see Partial and the rest nothing at all.
I've set an alarm for 3:36 am WAT which is when it begins in Africa, I intend to not miss a thing, the next eclipse will be in 2021 and who knows if I'll be in the right place, I have to grab this opportunity with both hands. I'm excited about it, what about you?