Beginning Thursday and Friday, Nov. 18-19 you can watch the frost moon turn blood red right from your own front porch, or your favorite stargazing spot in Lakewood. It’s a partial eclipse visible here and throughout North America. It’s going to be quite a short event, but in NASA’s records lasting 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds. Will make it the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century, according to NASA.
Normally, light from the sun paints the face of the moon a grayish-white. Like most nights we look up into the sky, but when the eclipse peaks around 4 a.m. Eastern Time on the 19th, our planet will block 98 percent of the sun’s light from reaching the moon’s surface, creating something of a reddish hue.
A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through Earth’s partial shadow, or penumbra, and only a portion of it passes through the darkest shadow, or umbra. When there’s total or nearly a total lunar eclipse it is often called a “blood moon” for this reason. The November full moon, with or without an eclipse, is referred to as the full frost moon, sometimes called a full beaver or dark moon. Both were terms used by Native American tribes, who gave distinctive names to the moons to mark the season. The frost moon is the last full moon of autumn.
The amazing thing about this event is that you do not need any special equipment to see it. All you have to do is look for the moon during the peak times. Which for the Eastern time zone is 2-4 a.m. Nov.19th. Depending on the weather if it is too cloudy or what not there will be a live streaming event for those unfortunate enough to not be able to watch.
The amazing thing about this event is during this month’s eclipse it will be visible throughout most of North America, as well as eastern Russia, Japan, the Pacific Ocean, Mexico, Central America and parts of western South America. So if your awake and remember the date might as well step outside and at the very least catch a glimpse of a new record frost moon.
