Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
All eyes on eclipse of the Moon
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/01/neclipse01.xml
If the sky is clear on Saturday night the first total eclipse of the Moon for three years should be visible.
The Moon will appear a shade of brown, coppery-red or orange, an effect that will be visible from all continents.
During the period of totality, from 10.24pm to 11.58pm, the Moon will only be illuminated by light filtered through the Earth's atmosphere.
Its precise appearance depends on the amount of dust in the atmosphere: following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1992, which released large amounts of volcanic ash, the eclipsed Moon was nearly invisible.
As the Earth has not had a major eruption for some years "we can expect an impressive sight", said Ian Morison of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory.
"If there were astronauts on the Moon looking at Earth during a total lunar eclipse they would see a black disc surrounded by a bright red ring. It is the light from this ring that we see reflected by the Moon's surface."
Such an eclipse described in the Bible as the Moon "turned to blood" helped scientists to fix the date of the Crucifixion as Friday, April 3, AD 33.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/01/neclipse01.xml
If the sky is clear on Saturday night the first total eclipse of the Moon for three years should be visible.
The Moon will appear a shade of brown, coppery-red or orange, an effect that will be visible from all continents.
During the period of totality, from 10.24pm to 11.58pm, the Moon will only be illuminated by light filtered through the Earth's atmosphere.
Its precise appearance depends on the amount of dust in the atmosphere: following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1992, which released large amounts of volcanic ash, the eclipsed Moon was nearly invisible.
As the Earth has not had a major eruption for some years "we can expect an impressive sight", said Ian Morison of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory.
"If there were astronauts on the Moon looking at Earth during a total lunar eclipse they would see a black disc surrounded by a bright red ring. It is the light from this ring that we see reflected by the Moon's surface."
Such an eclipse described in the Bible as the Moon "turned to blood" helped scientists to fix the date of the Crucifixion as Friday, April 3, AD 33.