William Atkins
Sunday, 08 February 2009 20:27
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
A penumbral lunar eclipse are not so dramatic as an umbra lunar eclipse (when the lunar surface is completely shadowed by the Earth’s umbra), which involves the darkest inner part of the Earth’s shadow.
Most, but not all of the light from the Sun will be blocked by the Earth onto the Moon.
Consequently, the penumbral lunar eclipse on February 9, 2009, will show a faint but still very visible dusky shading of the northern (upper, from our vantage point on Earth) part of the Moon.
However, the eclipse will only be detectable by the naked eye when at least half of the Moon enters the penumbra.
According to NASA, this February 9th event will be the
“deepest penumbral eclipse” for 2009, with a penumbral magnitude of 0.899 (according to the Danjon scale: 0 is a very dark eclipse with Moon almost invisible; 1 is a dark (gray or brownish) eclipse; 2 a deep red or rust-colored one; 3 is a brick-red one; and 4 is a very bright copper-red or orange eclipse). [TimeandDate.com: “
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse on February 9, 2009”] Three other penumbral lunar eclipses will occur in 2009."
People who have the best spots for viewing the penumbral lunar eclipse are those in Hawaii in North America, eastern Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Page three states other regions also able to see the eclipse, along with a map showing which regions will be able to see the
penumbral lunar eclipse and which unlucky ones won't get a chance to
see it.
