SkyHunt: January 2001

Eclipse parade continues!

This past Christmas Day, we saw the first solar eclipse viewable from North America in years. Now, on January 9, we’ll be able to witness a partial lunar eclipse from the GTA.

What is it?
Lunar eclipses are beautiful phenomena in which the Moon is plunged into the Earth’s shadow, dimming it to a fraction of its brilliance. During the eclipse, the Moon’s blazing silver disk turns an eerie orange as the even bigger disk of the Earth’s shadow looms over it. After a few minutes, the dark lunar surface again gives way to sunlight.

Where and when?
If you happen to be on a boat in the mid-Atlantic on the 9th, you’re all set to see the whole thing! For the rest of us who’re stuck in the GTA, find a place where you can get an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon at 5:10 p.m.

What you’ll see
Though the uneclipsing Moon will be a little hard to see then at dusk, the shadowy lunar disk will get brighter and brighter as the Sun continues to set. At about 5:30 p.m., you’ll be able to see the entire Moon in the sky, though it will only be about one-half eclipsed at this point. The arc of the rest of the Earth’s shadow next to the emerging sunlit surface reminds us how much bigger our home planet is (four times the diameter) compared to our Moon.