Cool Lunar Eclipse

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I was listening to the Science@NASA podcast last night and heard about an upcoming sky event your folks in the western US might be interested in knowing about. Actually, I guess it will be visible from most everywhere except Europe and Africa. But the Western US will have a fairly good view of the total lunar eclipse.

Here’s what the NASA story says about the event:

The event begins 54 minutes past midnight PDT (0754 UT) on August 28th when the Moon enters Earth’s shadow. At first, there’s little change. The outskirts of Earth’s shadow are as pale as the Moon itself; an onlooker might not even realize anything is happening. But as the Moon penetrates deeper, a startling metamorphosis occurs. Around 2:52 am PDT (0952 UT), the color of the Moon changes from moondust-gray to sunset-red. This is totality, and it lasts for 90 minutes.

So, if you’re feeling like pulling a late night (or all nighter?) seems like a cool reason to do it! And we here on the eastern side of the country will see it too, it will just be cut short by the sun. Oh well. If I can be awake then, I’ll be there!