Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Dec 20, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The sky-gazers in North America are up for a visual treat this week as this time the total Lunar Eclipse in three years is all set to turn the Moon red, pink or may be copper color. The citizens will be able to the rare site because this time the Earth, the Sun and the Moon are directly aligned. NASA’s eclipse expert Fred Espenak said that the entire spectacular event will be visible from Greenland, Ireland and North America this time. The NASA expert said that the show will start from Monday evening.

Fred Espenak told that the people of Western Europe would get to see the Lunar Eclipse’s beginning stages and the Western Asia would be able to witness the later stages. The experts say that this time the eclipse would run for total three and half hours. A reputed US magazine reported that Lunar Eclipse’s color can be affected by two factors and the first one would be Moon’s direction towards the umbra because the edges of the umbra are lighter than its center. The second factor is the atmosphere of the Earth. The magazine reports that if the atmosphere is clear and pleasant, then the eclipse would be bright. However, if the atmosphere is unruly, then the eclipse would be somewhat dark.

Fred Espenak said that the last lunar eclipse took place in 2008 and in the next year there would be two eclipses, one on June 15 and the other on December 10. The sky-gazers are now hoping for a clear sky to witness such a beautiful event early Tuesday. New Mexico State University’s Astronomy professor said that this time no binoculars or telescopes will be required to see this event.