![\"\"](\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/LunerEclipseTotal-300x153.jpeg\")
From Dr.\u00a0 Timothy Bratton…<\/p>\nFrom Dr.\u00a0 Timothy Bratton…<\/p>\n
Jan. 31, 2018 (Wed.): The month concludes with a bang as a total lunar eclipse takes place this morning.\u00a0 Below is the chronology of this event for Jamestown:<\/p>\n
4:50 a.m.: The eastern rim of the Moon, which will be then 99.98% sunlit and 30.6 degrees above the WSW-W skyline, makes contact with the penumbra (the Earth\u2019s fainter outer shadow).\u00a0 The penumbra is so faint that it will not become noticeable for a half-hour or so, when the eastern part of the Moon might display a darker grayish tint. \u00a0\u00a0Wearing sunglasses (of all things!) often heightens the contrast between the penumbra and the rest of the Moon. \u00a0Meteorologist and astronomer Joe Rao also recommends projecting the lunar image through a telescope eyepiece on to a sheet of paper; this too increases the contrast, and has enabled him to detect the penumbra within 33 minutes after the start of lunar eclipses.<\/p>\n
5:48 a.m.: The partial stage of the eclipse begins when the Moon\u2019s eastern rim makes contact with the Earth\u2019s umbra, or darker inner shadow.\u00a0 At this time Luna will be almost 21 degrees over the western horizon and 99.99% lit.<\/p>\n
6:51 a.m.: Total eclipse begins as the Moon, now 16 1\/3 degrees above the W-WNW skyline, moves fully into the Earth\u2019s umbra.\u00a0 Because some sunlight is refracted through the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and reaches the lunar surface, the Moon is not darkened completely; it probably will be colored orange.\u00a0 The \u201cwild card\u201d this year might be the smoke from the California forest fires; if enough soot is thrown into the atmosphere, the light reaching the Moon will be reduced, so that it appears reddish, brick-red, or grey.\u00a0 I saw a total lunar eclipse near Cleveland, Ohio, in 1963 where the Indonesian volcano Mt. Pinatubo had thrown so much ash into the sky that the Moon disappeared entirely at mid-eclipse; except for a circular gap in the star field, nobody would have realized that the Moon was there!\u00a0 What will pan out during this month\u2019s eclipse?<\/p>\n
7:27 a.m.: Full Moon occurs technically with the Moon directly opposite the Sun (which from a lunar perspective would be a total eclipse of the Sun, with the darkened Earth surrounded by a halo of fiery light).\u00a0 At this moment the Moon will be just less than 5 degrees over the WNW horizon, 33.228 arc-minutes across, and 223,816 miles away.<\/p>\n
8:04 a.m.: The Moon sets on Jamestown\u2019s WNW horizon, mere minutes before its eastern limb exits from the Earth\u2019s umbra.<\/p>\n
8:08 a.m.: The Moon begins moving out of the umbra, returning to a partial eclipse stage.<\/p>\n
9:12 a.m.: The Moon departs entirely from the Earth\u2019s umbra, returning to the penumbral eclipse stage.<\/p>\n
10:10 a.m.: The eclipse ends entirely as the Moon exits the Earth\u2019s penumbra.<\/p>\n
On July 27 there will be another lunar eclipse, but it will be visible primarily from central Africa and central Asia.<\/p>\n
Celebrate the New Year with this spectacular heavenly event (and pray that the weather will cooperate!).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Dr.\u00a0 Timothy Bratton… Jan. 31, 2018 (Wed.): The month concludes with a bang as a total lunar eclipse takes place this morning.\u00a0 Below is the chronology of this event for Jamestown: 4:50 a.m.: The eastern rim of the Moon, which will be then 99.98% sunlit and 30.6 degrees above […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135927,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135925\/revisions\/135927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/127458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}