A Spectacularl Lunar Event, Lunar Eclipse 2010

An amazing celestial event is taking place late December 20^th to early morning, December 21^st on the east coast in the USA.  The earth and the sun will interact to make a lunar eclipse. Not everyone on the planet will see the eclipse. North and Central America and Small part of South America will have the best view. Western Europe will be able to see the beginning of the spectacular sky event and Western Asia will only see the very end.

This eclipse happens at the winter solstice, and the moon will appear very high in the sky. The NASA experts are predicting the moon will appear bright red or orange.

The whole show is going to last about 31/2 hours. The hope is of course for clear skies. When the moon is completely eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow will last just a bit over an hour.

The Moon gets its illumination from the sun. But during a total lunar eclipse, the full moon passes into the shadow created by the Earth blocking the sun’s light. The Sun never to be denied will still have some indirect light that will still escape and give the moon an eerie appearance.

A bonus is this is a lunar eclipse, not solar, so you can look at it with your naked eye, no special equipment needed.

If the skies are not clear, there is hope. The Griffith Observatory on Mount Hollywood in L.A. California plans to stream live video of the eclipse on the Internet. Also NASA will show the eclipse live from their camera mounted at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

There will be two lunar eclipses in 2011, the first in June and the second in December again. However North America will miss the one in June and only see a part of the lunar eclipse that occurs in December.