Posted: 09/30/2014 11:03:03 AM MDT
Updated: 10/01/2014 01:41:56 PM MDT
October is host to Halloween, and we invariably hold the spooky-spooky moon up as the icon of the month. Its presence in those kitschy shopping center holiday decorations, however, tells us that the moon's image in popular culture has been reduced to a caricature of itself, played out to the point of cliché.
But that's not the case this October.
Luna, earth's closest and oldest celestial companion, steps up in a big way by muscling out October's secondary highlights like a woman on a mission, regally lording over all that other pastiche.
In addition to having the moon especially close, skywatchers have one total lunar and one partial solar eclipse to revel beneath.
The moon, big and bodacious for October's entire first half, is at perigee (closest to the earth) at 3:42 a.m. Oct. 6 when it's about 225,715 miles distant, or thereabout depending upon who you reference. That mileage certifies it as a super moon, according to Fred Espenak, 'Mr. Eclipse,' one of many retired, yet still quite active, NASA astrophysicists at Goddard Space Flight Center. As such, it will appear particularly vivid, large and bright.
Two mornings later on Oct. 8, Luna turns it up to 11 as the moon wraps itself in the dark shroud of the earth's shadow (umbra) in an impressive total eclipse. Lunar eclipses get their colors from all the sunrises and sunsets refracting through the earth's atmosphere simultaneously and the mere sight of one can be awesome.
From absolute beginning to brutal end, our naked-eye viewing time is from 2:45 a.m. to 7:05 a.m. on a Wednesday; excruciating unless you're up anyway. Partial eclipse begins at 3:15 a.m.
Hardcore skywatchers will be out there nevertheless with telescopes and binoculars, watching every detail of the dramatic lunar landscape becoming overwhelmed by the earth's umbra. We'll even have the opportunity to see Uranus, which reaches opposition the day before on the 7th, two-thirds of one degree to the moon's southwest at magnitude 5.7.
However, if you're just going in for bragging rights merely to say that you saw it, get out there by 4:15 a.m. before the moon goes from partial to total eclipse. Totality lasts 59 minutes from 4:25 a.m. to 5:24 a.m.; nothing's left by 6:34 a.m.
But some skywatchers are saying, hey, now wait a minute: didn't we just have a total eclipse back on April 14-15? Yes, we did; excellent observation. This eclipse is the second in a tetrad, that is, a series of four eclipses separated by six month intervals with no partial lunar eclipses in between.
Since 2013, some in the popular media along with various proponents of Christian prophecies have been calling such moons 'blood moons' because both this eclipse and the one in September 2015 align with the dates of the Feast of Tabernacles. Last April's and April 2015's total lunar eclipses align with the Feast of Passover. The term also had been used before then as a descriptor.
The moon is full at 4:51 a.m. Oct. 8, and, burdened with all the extra jargon, is called the Super Full Hunter's Blood Moon. You can't make this stuff up, really, but apparently we do it all the time, just the same.
Fast forward 15 days to the afternoon of Oct. 23. Luna passes in front of the sun for a partial solar eclipse. From our position in and around Denver, the moon's silhouette begins to take a bite out of the sun's disc around 2:18 p.m. The bite reaches its maximum chomp at 3:35 p.m., and then moves off until the partial eclipse finishes at 4:43 p.m.
Observing a solar eclipse is far more challenging than a lunar eclipse because one cannot look directly at the sun for any sustained period. Any and all happenchance glances of the sun through a telescope or binoculars without proper filters will painfully heat fry skywatchers' retinas, causing permanent blindness instantaneously. Without question, use proper protection like cheap solar observing glasses from companies such as McGuckin Hardware, or use the trendy, slightly more expensive hip ones from Rainbow Symphony.
Look for the crescent moon to the right of Mars on the 27th, and above the Red Planet on the 28th.
Check with Sommers-Bausch Observatory for regularly updated information regarding all skywatching events: (303) 492-6732.
Entities 0 Name: moon Count: 5 1 Name: Luna Count: 3 2 Name: Rainbow Symphony Count: 1 3 Name: Christian Count: 1 4 Name: Fred Espenak Count: 1 5 Name: Denver Count: 1 6 Name: Super Full Hunter Count: 1 7 Name: NASA Count: 1 8 Name: McGuckin Hardware Count: 1 9 Name: Feast of Tabernacles Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1qTSr7N Title: October 2014 Eclipse Cycle: How will it affect your Sign Description: The Sun represents your individual identity and the Moon your emotional needs, your inner feelings. Lunar cycles mark the personal themes and rhythms of your life, and during eclipse seasons these themes are amplified and re-set. Solar eclipses happen at the New Moon, and lunar eclipses on a Full Moon.
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