- Southern Hemisphere Sky Events

Lunar Eclipse Tuesday 21 December 2010

Hopefully the weather gods will shine .. or at least not rain on us next Tuesday when a partial Lunar Eclipse will be just visible from Eastern Australia.

Partial Lunar Eclipse. An approximation of the Moon's appearance at 7.30pm AEST on Tuesday 21 December 2010.

Technically speaking,  the eclipse will be visible as a total lunar eclipse if you happen to be in Europe, West Africa and North America.  Unfortunately by the time the Earth rotates around sufficiently for Eastern Australian viewers to look at the Moon, the eclipse will be past its total phase. For the record, the total eclipse phase ends at 6.53 pm AEST when the Moon is below our horizon.

If you happen to be lucky enough to have a clear sky early on Tuesday evening, grab a pair of binoculars and look low on the Eastern horizon around 7.30pm AEST (add one hour if your location follows Summer time). Just under half the Moon will still be covered by the Earth’s shadow. The partial phase of the eclipse ends at 8.01 pm AEST.

Further information about this eclipse can be found on NASA’s Lunar Eclipse Website. Wikipedia has a useful page about Lunar Eclipses here.

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