Total Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday Feb 20, 2008
On the Evening of Feb 20, the moon will pass through the earth's shadow and darken. The moon doesn't completely diappear due to the light coming from the sun being refracted around the earth atmosphere. Red light being most refracted in the earth's atmosphere, is sent in the moon's direction, lighting up the moon's surface, and making the moon to appear to have a redish / orange color. Depending on the conditions of the earth's atmosphere and how far the moon passes into the earth's shadow effect the brightness of the eclipse.
Because we are behind what's called Universal Time ( UT ) this eclipse starts on Feb 20, for our time zone.
Event Times
This Eclipse stars on Feb 20, but ends on Feb 21. So you must look at the moon on the evening of Feb 20 to view the eclipse.
| Moon Begins to Enter the earth's Penumbral Shadow, this causes the moon to just slighly darken. | 7:34:53 pm |
| Moon Begins to Enter's the Earth's Umbral Shadow, this causes the moon to really darken. | 8:42:54 pm |
| Total Lunar Eclipse Begins, the moon is no longer lit by direct sunlight, but refracted sunlight | 10:00:31 pm |
| Total Lunar Eclipse Ends, as the moon begins to again lit by direct sunlight | 10:51:25 pm |
| Moon Finishes Leaving the Earth's Umbral Shadow | 12:09:00 am |
| Moon Finishes Leaving the Earth's Penumbral Shadow | 1:17:10 am |
What the moon can appear to look like.
Note: The moon appears smaller then what is show here, when you look at it using just your eye. Use a pair of binoculars, are telescope to have a different view of the eclipse.
