Results tagged “eclipse”

Most people won't notice it, but we will have a lunar eclipse tonight, visible from anywhere in Australia (weather permitting, of course) — and also from New Zealand, most of the Pacific, Alaska, China, parts of India and most of Russia. The continental US sees only part of the eclipse, with the Moon setting before it ends.

A penumbral eclipse happens when the Moon goes through the penumbra of the Earth, the area of "partial shadow" around the main shadow of the planet. Viewed from the Moon, this appears as a partial solar eclipse (an umbral eclipse is seen from the Moon as a total solar eclipse).

In eastern Australia, the eclipse starts at 23:36 AEST AEDT (12:36 UTC), with the maximum eclipse at 01:38 tomorrow morning (14:38 UTC). Visually, you will see one "corner" of the full Moon clearly darker that the rest of the disk. More information and a visibility diagram can be seen at the HMNAO eclipse's website.

Next Monday (26 January) is Australia Day, and nature will help in the celebrations with a partial solar eclipse visible from the whole country (except Tasmania) — even if barely, from some places.

This is actually going to be an annular eclipse in some parts of the world, most of them covered by water. The path of the eclipse starts over the South Atlantic, southwest of South Africa, and follows east from there over the Indic Ocean ending over Indonesia, which is the most significant land mass from where the annular eclipse will be visible.

In Australia, the places with the best view will be (not surprisingly) those closest to Indonesia. Darwin will see the Moon covering a bit less than half of the Sun (41.3%, to be precise), with the maximum occultation happening just before sunset, at 7.03pm local time (the sun will set during the eclipse). From Melbourne, we'll see the Moon covering just about 0.4% of the Sun at 7.54pm local time — just a barely visible "nick" on the Sun's disk, but it should still be visible (the sun sets at 8.38pm on that day). Sydney sees 1% of the Sun being covered at 7.59pm, which is just about at sunset.

The weather forecast for next Monday in Melbourne is for a sunny, cool day, so going out to look at the sunset and to try to spot the eclipse might be a good program for the end of the holiday (just remember to be very careful when looking straight at the Sun).