The day will be short, the night long, and the moon a brilliant shade of red.
All of this will happen because the winter solstice and a total lunar eclipse will be a package deal this year, both occurring on Dec. 21.
In the metro area, viewers should begin to look to the skies on Dec. 20, around 11:15 p.m., to see the eclipse, said Douglas Duncan, Fiske Planetarium director. At 11:33 p.m., the moon will begin to go into the darker, central shadow from the Earth, and from 12:41 a.m. to 1:53 a.m. on Dec. 21, it will be completely eclipsed.
“One of the nice things about lunar eclipses is that half the world, the half where it is night, gets to see a total lunar eclipse,” Duncan said.
Two ingredients are necessary for a total lunar eclipse: a full moon and a path that takes it through Earth’s shadow. If these two things happen at the same time, the moon can glow any color from red to turquoise for one to three hours as it passes through.
The next total lunar eclipse visible from North America won’t happen until Dec. 10, 2011.
See it better
Fiske Planetarium on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus is hosting a free event, complete with telescopes and binoculars and a 45-minute presentation on what to expect with an eclipse. Doors will open at 10 p.m. on Dec. 20.
