We discovered that Monday Night...well Tuesday morning, around 1:00AM MST, there was going to a full lunar eclipse. Many of the graduate students were not going to miss this wonderful moment, so many of us braved the all-nighter or woke up in time to see the moon go through its eclipse.
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| Half-Way There! |
This was such an amazing sight to see...a total eclipse of the heart (from the moon)! Haha. And the weather last night for us was beyond perfect to moon-gaze. Unlike many of my friends across the country, who had full cloudy skies, I felt incredibly blessed and fortunate to be able to see it.
This spectacle was incredibly beautiful and the first total lunar eclipse of the 2014 year. It was set to start roughly around 11:00PM MST (Monday, April 14) and finish through it's eclipse 2:30AM MST (Tuesday, April 15).
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| Attempting to Capture the Eclipse Through My Binoculars & iPhone! Not too bad...but I should eventually invest in a better recording system. |
Here is the Timeline of The Lunar Eclipse
Stage 1 (10:53PM MST) : Moon Enters Penumbra - A shadow cone of the Earth has a dark, inner umbra, which is surrounded by a lighter penumbra. This penumbra is a pale outer part of the Earth's shadow. The eclipse officially begins at this moment. The penumbral shadow is too faint that it remains invisible until the moon is deeply immersed in it. The 45-minutes will allow the moon to fully shine until it progressively gets darker into Earth's outer shadow.
Stage 2 (11:39PM MST) : Penumbral Shadow Begins to Appear - Moon has progressed enough into the penumbra so the shadow should be evident on its disk. It starts to look very subtle with light shading on the moon's left side. Just before the moon begins to enter Earth's dark umbral shadow the penumbra should appear as a smudge or tarnishing of the moon's left side.
Stage 3 (11:58PM MST) : Moon Enters Umbra - Moon now crosses into the Earth's dark central shadow, called the umbra. A small dark scallop will be begin to appear on the moon's left-limb. This beings the partial phases of the eclipse; as the pace quickens and the change is more dramatic, the umbra gets much darker than the penumbra and fairly sharp-edged. With time passing the dark shadow appear to slowly creep across the moon. The edge of the Earth's shadow is projected on the moon in a curve and this is visible evidence that the Earth is round and spherical (for any non-round believers!)
Stage 4 (12:49AM MST) : 75 Percent Coverage - Three-quarters of the moon's disk is now eclipsed and the area that is immersed in the the shadow should begin to faintly light up. I was able to see this through my Nikon Monarch 5 binoculars, that I was able to see the lunar seas and craters, however the central part is still much darker. The colors of the umbra start to be red, gray, and slightly yellowy-orange.
Stage 5 (1:01AM MST) : Less Than Five Minutes to Totality - The colors are still yellow, brown, and slight hints of orange.
Stage 6 (1:06AM MST) : The Total Eclipse of the (Moon) Heart Begins! - When the last of the moon enters the umbra, this is when the total eclipse begins. The Moon can appear in a variety of way and colors...and each eclipse is different. This is because the sunlight is scattered and refracted around the edge of the Earth by the planet's atmosphere.
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| Visual Captured by an iPhone...after loads of snapshots and attempting to stead the camera and binoculars together. I know, I need a real camera! |
Stage 7 (1:46AM MST) : Middle of Totality - The moon is still shining and moving into the north of the center of Earth's umbra. The colors and brightness vary where the lower portion of the moon appears the darkest while the upper portion is the brightest.
Stage 8 (2:24AM MST) : Total Eclipse Ends - The emergence of the moon from the shadow begins and the first small segment of the moon begins to reappear. (This is when TheChristyBel decided to go to bed! So Ty-Ty by then...thanks to staying up all day and night for this!)
Stage 9 (2:41AM MST) : 75 Percent Coverage - The coloration within the umbra is disappearing now and the dark shadow creeps off the moon's disk and will appear black and featureless.
Stage 10 (3:33AM MST) : Moon Leaves Umbra - the dark central shadow clears the moon's upper right limb.
Stage 11 (3:53AM MST) : Penumbra Shadow Fades Away - Faint shading vanishes off moon's upper right portion, the visual show comes to an end.
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| A Beautiful Photograph From Fellow Teton Science Schools Graduate Student, Hazel Stark! |
This was such a beautiful and amazing moment in the night sky! Would never forget this moment!
TheChristyBel
Resources:
First Total Lunar Eclipse of 2014: The Complete Skywatcher's Guide
http://www.space.com/25479-total-lunar-eclipse-2014-skywatching-guide.html
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