Sunday Night: Only Total Lunar Eclipse of 2019 w/Web-Casts

    
Time of totality during the Total Lunar Eclipse / Total Eclipse of the Moon of 2018 July 27.
(Image Sources: Wikipedia.org, By Giuseppe Donatiello from Italy - Lunar Total Eclipse on July 27, 2018 (100_2006), CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71222333)

By Glenn A. Walsh

Reporting for SpaceWatchtower

Sunday evening / early Monday (or “Moon-Day,” the day-of-the-week named for the Moon) morning, the only Total Eclipse of the Moon / Total Lunar Eclipse of 2019 will be visible, completely, in the United States, Canada, and in-fact in all of North and South America! Portions of the Eclipse will also be visible in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, western portions of Asia, and northern portions of Japan.

An Eclipse of the Moon / Lunar Eclipse is the type of Eclipse that is safe to watch, directly, with the naked-eye (one-power), binoculars, or a telescope.

Of course, visibility of any Lunar Eclipse / Eclipse of the Moon is dependent on local weather conditions. For areas where sky conditions are poor, as well as in areas where the Eclipse will not be visible at all, Internet web-casts of the event will be available (links to these web-casts are listed near the end of this blog-post).

A Lunar Eclipse / Eclipse of the Moon occurs when the orbit of the Moon brings our natural satellite into the Earth's shadow (shadow caused by the Earth completely blocking light from the Sun), always near the time, and including the time, of a Full Moon. Native Americans called the Full Moon of January the Wolf Moon; but, more on that later.

Later on Monday afternoon (about 12 hours after the conclusion of the Lunar Eclipse) will occur the monthly Lunar Perigee, when the Moon in its orbit around the Earth is closest to the Earth for this particular month. The distance between the Earth and the Moon at this month's Lunar Perigee: 222,042 statute miles / 357,342 kilometers. This day, Large Tides Along Ocean Coast-Lines are Predicted, due to the Primary Moon Phase of Full Moon (and Total Lunar Eclipse / Total Eclipse of the Moon) only hours before Lunar Perigee.

When closer to the Earth, the Moon often looks slightly larger and slightly brighter than normal. Hence, when Lunar Perigee occurs close to the time of Full Moon, some refer to the Moon as a “Super-Moon.”

Here are the major stages of this Total Lunar Eclipse / Total Eclipse of the Moon –

Sunday Evening / Monday Morning, 2019 January 20 / 21 ---

[Eastern Standard Time (EST) / Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)]

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Begins                                 9:36:29 p.m. EST / 2:36:29 UTC

Partial Lunar Eclipse Begins                                       10:33:55 p.m. EST / 3:33:55 UTC

Total Lunar Eclipse Begins                                          11:41:19 p.m. EST / 4:41:19 UTC

Greatest Lunar Eclipse                                                12:12:18 a.m. EST / 5:12:18 UTC

Moon Phase - Full Moon                                              12:16 a.m. EST / 5:16 UTC

Total Lunar Eclipse Ends                                              12:43:18 a.m. EST / 5:43:18 UTC

Partial Lunar Eclipse Ends                                              1:50:42 a.m. EST / 6:50:42 UTC

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Ends                                       2:48:06 a.m. EST / 7:48:06 UTC

Monthly Lunar Perigee (Moon closest to Earth)              3:00 p.m. EST / 20:00 UTC

Duration of time for ---

Complete Eclipse, including all phases: 5 hours, 12 minutes.

Partial Phases: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Total Phase of Eclipse: 1 hour, 2 minutes.

Of course, "Totality" / Total Phase of the Eclipse is the most impressive part of the Eclipse, what most people wait to see. The Partial Phases of the Eclipse are when a piece of the Moon seems missing, as the Moon moves further into the Earth's main shadow known as the umbra, or as the Eclipse is ending the Moon is further moving out of the Earth's umbra.

The Penumbral Phases of the Eclipse are difficult to see, as the Moon moves into or out of the Earth's secondary shadow or penumbra. In this case, one would not see any chunks or bites taken out of the Moon's disk, as one would see when the Moon moves into the umbra shadow during the Partial Phases. Instead, if your eyes are very good, you may notice a slight dimming of the light coming from the Moon, as the Moon moves further into the penumbral shadow

Often, particularly during the middle of a Total Eclipse of the Moon, the Moon will not disappear from view but can be seen with a reddish tint, what some call "blood red." If the Earth had no atmosphere, likely no sunlight would reach the Moon during a Total Lunar Eclipse, and there would be no "Blood Moon;" the Moon would seem to completely disappear.

Although no direct sunlight reaches the Moon during a Total Lunar Eclipse, the Earth's atmosphere refracts the sunlight around our planet allowing a portion of the sunlight to continue to be transmitted to the Moon. However, the refracted light reaching the Moon is primarily in the red portion of the light spectrum, as with red-tinted sunrises and sunsets (during such a Total Lunar Eclipse, a person standing on the side of the Moon facing Earth could see all Earth sunrises and sunsets simultaneously, as they viewed the Earth in a Total Solar Eclipse !). Hence, it is red light that is reflected from the Moon back into your eyes during a Total Lunar Eclipse.

To most Native Americans, the Full Moon of January was known as the Wolf Moon (although some references refer to the December Full Moon as the "Wolves" Moon). Of course this refers to the hungry wolf packs howling on cold and snowy nights outside Indian villages, as the wolf packs hunted their next meal in the frigid environment.

The Full Moon in January, in the Northern Hemisphere, was also known as the Old Moon, the Moon After Yule, Difficulty Moon, and Black Smoke Moon. And, some Indian tribes referred to this Full Moon as the Snow Moon, although most tribes used the Snow Moon name for the Full Moon of February.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Full Moon of January was known as the Hay Moon, Buck Moon, Thunder Moon, and Mead Moon.

Internet Web-Casts Available for those not able to view the Eclipse directly ----

* www.TimeandDate.com: Link >>> https://www.timeanddate.com/live/

* www.LunarEclipse2018.org: Link >>> http://www.lunareclipse2018.org/live-webcast/

* Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles:
 Link >>> https://livestream.com/GriffithObservatoryTV/LunarEclipseJanuary2019

* Slooh On-Line Observatory: Link >>> https://slooh.com/shows/event-details/614

Internet Links to Additional Information ---

Total Lunar Eclipse of 2019 January 20-21 -
Link 1 >>> https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2019/1/21/total-lunar-eclipse-and-supermoon/
Link 2 >>> https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2019Jan21T.pdf
Link 3 >>> https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2019-january-21
Link 4 >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2019_lunar_eclipse
Link 5 >>> http://buhlplanetarium4.tripod.com/astrocalendar/2019.html#eclipselun20190121

Lunar Eclipse / Eclipse of the Moon: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse

Eclipse: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse

Earth's Moon: Link >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

Moon Illusion - Why the Moon looks larger, when it is low in the sky (NASA):
Link >>> https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/27jun_moonillusion

Related Blog-Post ---

"50th Anniversary: The Incredible Legacy of Apollo 8." 2018 Dec. 24.

Link >>> https://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2018/12/50th-anniversary-incredible-legacy-of.html

The first trip of humans to the Moon !

Source: Glenn A. Walsh Reporting for SpaceWatchtower, a project of Friends of the Zeiss.
              Friday, 2019 January 18.

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gaw

Glenn A. Walsh --- < http://buhlplanetarium2.tripod.com/weblog/spacewatchtower/gaw/ >
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
Project Director, Friends of the Zeiss: < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/fotz/ >
SpaceWatchtower Editor / Author: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Formerly Astronomical Observatory Coordinator & Planetarium Lecturer, original Buhl Planetarium & Institute of Popular Science (a.k.a. Buhl Science Center), Pittsburgh's science & technology museum from 1939 to 1991. Formerly Trustee of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >