The eclipse of the century - on the Internet

Half of the Earth enjoyed a true show in the sky last night - the longest total lunar eclipse in the last 100 years.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9CUrgXM5Dc

The phenomenon was visible in most of Europe, Africa, Central and West Asia and the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately in many places it could not be observed due to the cloudy skies or bad weather.

The moon entered the Earth's penumbra, and even disappeared for a couple of hours, leaving the planet in complete darkness. The eclipse lasted for over 5 hours. When the sun and the earth were perfectly aligned, as the eclipse was reaching its peak, the moon disappeared completely for about 100 minutes.

Americans and Canadians had to accept watching it on TV, as it was day time when it happened.

You can find more on this topic on NASA's eclipse website: click here or here.


Technical details: 

The first lunar eclipse of 2011 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in southern Ophiuchus about 7° west of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). The Moon passes deeply through Earth's umbral shadow during this rather long event. The total phase itself lasts 100 minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was in July 2000. The Moon's contact times with Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows are listed below.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 17:24:34 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 18:22:56 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 19:22:30 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 20:12:37 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 21:02:42 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 22:02:15 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 23:00:45 UT

At the instant of greatest eclipse the umbral eclipse magnitude will reach 1.6998 as the Moon's centre passes within 5.3 arc-minutes of the shadow axis. The Moon's southern limb will lay 54.2 arc-minutes from the edge of the umbra while the northern limb will lay 22.3 arc-minutes from the umbra's edge. Thus, the northern regions of the Moon will probably appear brighter than the southern regions that lie deeper in the shadow. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will change dramatically with time. It is difficult to predict the exact brightness distribution in the umbra so observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at different times during totality.

The June 15 total lunar eclipse is the 34th member of Saros 130, a series of 71 eclipses occurring in the following order: 8 penumbral, 20 partial, 14 total, 22 partial, and 7 penumbral lunar eclipses (Espenak and Meeus, 2009a) spanning 1262 years.

The Space Art Image of the Astronaut on the Moon time of Total Eclipse by Daivd Hardy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYyvxYs_iW0