Total Lunar Eclipse during sunset on the Island of Koh Phangan
Mysta Squiggle is pleased to announce…
Total lunar eclipse (ie the earth will cast a shadow on the moon) @ Tuesday 28th August 2007 – 4:52pm – 6:22pm Thai time
It is safe to watch with the naked eye. Total lunar eclipse only ever happens precisely at time of full moon. No arguments this time about when it is, eh? 🙂 It will last about an hour and a half. Although it will be totally “eclipsed” the Moon will go orange rather than disappear because some light from the sun will bend around the earth through its atmosphere as it goes.
You can see a diagram of the moon as it passes through Earth’s shadow here (NB times are GMT)
Only the dark shadow (The “umbra” shown in red in the diagram) will have an obvious visible effect.
It happens between 0-3 times a year, but half the time your country will be in daylight so you won’t see it (and the other times it may be too cloudy to see). The next one visible from Australia is in about a year from now (August 16th 2008).
lunar eclipses are very bad luck. when they happen you should keep your eyes to the ground, stay indoors and make loud noises to keep the bad spirits away. banging pots and pans from the kitchen is usually good enough. if you have some firecrackers or other noisy stuff that is good too. Very loud music like from heavy metal rock bands can help in necessary. do not worry as on this planet we are not plagued with too many of these awful bad luck eclipses.