FLORENCE-The night of April 14/15th will bring a special treat for those who like to watch the sky. Starting late on April 14th and continuing into the pre-dawn hours of April 15th, observers in north Alabama will be able to watch a total eclipse of the Moon. Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon, on its orbit around the Earth passes into the Earth’s shadow. Eclipses of the Moon do not occur every month because the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tilted compared to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. When things line up just right the full Moon slowly gets darker and darker until it has a red color and we have a total eclipse. The Moon then drifts out of the Earth’s shadow to become bright and full again. The totally eclipsed Moon looks red because light travels through the Earth’s atmosphere onto the Moon’s surface even in the middle of the eclipse. Some people call this the “Blood Moon” as a result. Eclipses have evoked generally negative reaction in history, being seen as negative omens. In 270B.C. Greek scientist and mathematician Aristarchus used lunar eclipses to estimate the size of the Moon compared to the Earth based on 
the size of the Earth’s shadow compared to the Moon on the sky.
The part of the Earth’s shadow where an observer on the Moon would see only part of the Sun blocked off by the Earth is called the penumbral shadow while the part of the Earth’s shadow where an observer on the Moon would see the Sun completely blocked by the Earth is called the umbral shadow. Most observers will not notice the penumbral stages of the lunar eclipse that occur just before and after the partial eclipse phases of 
the lunar eclipse. North Alabama will see the beginning of the partial phase of the eclipse starting about 12:58AM CDT on the morning of April 15th when the first visible shadow of the Earth appears to creep across the lunar disk. The total eclipse stage will begin around 2:07AM CDT, and end 3:25AM CDT. The second partial eclipse phase ends around 4:33AM CDT. No special equipment is needed to watch a lunar eclipse although a telescope or binoculars will help in seeing the very early and late stages. The event lasts several hours, so even if the weather is poor at the start it can improve and allow observers to watch the remaining stages of the eclipse. If the weather is poor another chance to see a lunar eclipse will occur on Oct 8th when north Alabama will be able to observe the most of the eclipse that night in the west in the early morning hours before sunrise.
If weather permits, UNA planetarium will hold a public observing session with telescopes available to view the eclipse.
photos by mel blake
