Sky Watchers Total Eclipse of Moon Happens Tonight

Updated:2007-03-03 14:50:59
Total Eclipse of Moon Happens Tonight

AP
LONDON (March 3) - The moon will turn shades of amber and crimson tonight as it passes behind the Earth's shadow in the first total lunar eclipse in three years.

Earth's shadow will begin moving across the moon at 3:18 p.m. EST Saturday, with the total eclipse occurring at 5:44 p.m. EST and lasting more than an hour.



Elaine Thompson, AP
The full moon turns red and orange as it passes the Space Needle in Seattle during a total lunar eclipse on Oct. 27, 2004.


Ed Andrieski, AP
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, in its orbit around the Earth, passes into the Earth's shadow in space, shown here in eight minute intervals.


Janek Skarzynski, AFP / Getty Images
At the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, Poland, a lunar eclipse appears on May 5, 2004.


Robert Cianflone, Getty Images
Viewers in Melbourne, Austrailia, saw the moon turn amber on in this lunar eclipse on May 5, 2004.


Dario Lopez-Mills, AP
The eclipse will be at least partly visible from Asia to the Americas, but those in Europe, Africa and the Middle East will have the best view.

Lunar eclipses occur when Earth passes between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun's light. The event is rare because the moon spends most of its time either above or below the plane of Earth's orbit.

Although it will pass completely under Earth's shadow, light from the sun will still reach the moon after being refracted through Earth's atmosphere, giving the moon an eerie dark reddish tinge.

"It's not an event that has any scientific value, but it's something everybody can enjoy," said Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society.


Earth's shadow will begin moving across the moon at 3:18 p.m. EST Saturday, with the total eclipse occurring at 5:44 p.m. EST and lasting more than an hour.

Observers in eastern North America and South America will find the moon already partially or totally eclipsed by the time it rises over the horizon Saturday evening.

Alaska, eastern Australia and New Zealand will miss the show altogether.

The next total lunar eclipse will occur Aug. 28.


Peter H. Schultz, Brown University
Based on images like this one of the Ina Structure on the moon, researchers in November said the moon may have released volanic gas 1 million years ago.


Ken Seeber, AP
If true, it indicates that the central portion of the moon is still cooling, they said.


Corbis
Several bodies in our solar system exhibit volcanic activity. Earth has about 1,500 known active volcanoes. The largest in the world is Hawaii's Mauna Loa, above.


NASA Photo / ZUMA Press
The biggest known volcano in the solar system is on Mars. Olympus Mons is 370 miles in diameter and rises about 16 miles from the planet's surface.



AP
Venus has more volcanoes than any other planet in the solar system -- more than 1,600 major volcanoes and volcanic features, plus many more smaller volcanoes.


NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / AP
The most volcanically active body in the solar system is Io, a moon of Jupiter. Scientists have identified hundreds of volcanoes, many of them active.


NASA Photo / ZUMA Press
On the Neptune moon Triton, right, there is evidence of volcano-like activity driven by melted ice rather than magma. Sources: worldbook.com, usgs.gov, volcano.und.edu

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