This Saturday, June 26, was the first lunar eclipse of 2010 happens. Before viewing the first lunar eclipse of 2010, millions of tweens will be in movie theaters taking in the “Eclipse” premiere, the latest installment of “The Twilight Saga,” which has been released on the same date. Saturday’s lunar eclipse was a partial eclipse visible from much of the Americas, the Pacific and eastern Asia.
The interested ‘moon illusion’
The first lunar eclipse of 2010 appeared magnified in the U.S. by an effect known as the “moon illusion.” The BBC reports that the eclipse will appear larger because it occurs while the Moon is so close to the horizon. The partial lunar eclipse are not going to reach totality because the moon, sun and Earth will not be aligned exactly. At its maximum, 54 percent of the Moon’s diameter was covered around 4:38 a.m. Pacific time. The eclipse will last almost three hours.
The rising moon seems to trick your brain
If they’re able to stay up until dawn after the excitement of the Twilight Eclipse premiere, all of these tweens will think Saturday’s partial lunar eclipse will look way large because the human mind perceives the size of the low-hanging Moon in reference to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. Once the moon rises into the sky, it looks smaller without the earthbound objects for the brain to try to compare it to. In reality, a low Moon is the exact same distance away from us as any other moon and doesn’t change in size.
Dawn is in Americas while Twilight is in Asia
During the partial lunar eclipse, NASA reports that the moon illusion will be particularly strong in all of the western and central parts of the U.S. and also in Canada where the moon will be setting as the eclipse reaches maximum. NASA suggests looking low and to the west just before dawn. On the other side of the world, people in India, Japan, and parts of East Asia will see the moon illusion on Saturday evening as the Moon is rising.
Bloody moon involved in Twilight saga
During the lunar eclipse Saturday, the moon will appear the color of blood. But all of the excited tweens having stayed up all night talking about the Twilight “Eclipse” premiere shouldn’t be alarmed. The reddish color appears because sunlight reflecting off the moon passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, where it is scattered. Once the light passes through the atmosphere, the light left is dominated by longer wavelengths the human eye perceives as red. This is the same effect that causes sunsets and sunrises to turn the sky a reddish color.
Cranking up all of the moon telescopes
The first lunar eclipse of 2010 will be especially interesting viewed through a telescope. Universe Today suggests trying to crank up the magnification on your moon telescope to watch particular craters as the shadow sweeps over them. It might remind you of a cloud traveling across a landscape. If you have an eyepiece camera on your telescope, try taking some video footage and share it on YouTube. Universe Today gives a chart showing which craters to observe and when to focus on them.
Read more on this topic here
BBC
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10414201.stm
NASA
science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/24jun_lunareclipse/
Universe Today
universetoday.com/2010/06/24/partial-lunar-eclipse-visible-june-26-2010/
