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This month, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across North America.
According to Backyard Astronomer Gary Boyle, the eclipse will take place on the night of Jan. 20/21. Boyle says that North America will have a “ring-side seat for the entire show.”
“An eclipse is a result of the perfect lineup of the sun, earth and moon. This does not occur every month as our moon has a slight incline in its orbit often misses earth’s shadow,” says Boyle.
“In contrast to a solar eclipse where the moon blocks the sun and special filters are a must for safety reasons, a lunar eclipse is simply the full moon sliding into our planet’s shadow. During totality the lunar surface turns a copper orange due to sunlight refracting or passing through our atmosphere much like those hot summer sunsets on earth.”
Boyle says that, if you were on the moon, you would see an orange ring around the Earth, and from that vantage point you would see every sunset on the left side of the Earth and every sunrise on the right side simultaneously.
He says that the next total lunar eclipse we’ll see in Canada will take place on May 16, 2022, when the east and central part of the country will see it in its entirety.
Here are all the important times you should know about on Jan. 20:
- Partial umbral eclipse begins: 7:34 p.m. PST (The moon begins to enter the shadow.)
- Total lunar eclipse begins: 8:41 p.m. PST
- Greatest eclipse: 9:12 p.m. PST (The peak.)
- Total lunar eclipse ends: 9:43 p.m. PST
- Partial umbral eclipse ends: 10:51 p.m. PST (The moon completely exits the shadow.)
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