An Edgy Eclipse

The big news this month is the total lunar eclipse on February 20. And unlike last year, this one happens at a very civilized hour.

As the moon rises at 5:44 on the 20th, it’s just starting to enter the umbra, the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow. (The sun doesn’t set until eight minutes later.) Totality begins at 7:01 and continues until 7:51. The moon leaves the umbra at 9:08. Can you see the progression of the lighter penumbral shadow across the face of the moon?

This is an “edgy” eclipse – the moon is just skimming the edge of our umbra, so it may be fairly bright as eclipses go – a coppery colored moon with a bright edge, versus the deeper red of last year’s eclipse. But weather and other factors can affect the color of an eclipse ... you never know exactly what it’ll look like until you look!

This eclipse may be edgier than a Ginsu knife ...but wait, that’s not all. With this eclipse, you also get a bonus planet! Saturn hangs a scant four degrees away, making for lovely views in binoculars, wide-field scopes or photographs. Now how much would you pay? But wait, there’s more. About the same distance on the other side of Saturn from the moon are some nice Messier galaxies: M95, 96 and 105, plus similarly bright NGC 3371. How often do you get a chance to observe four galaxies at once less than eight degrees away from a full moon?

SJAA will have a public Eclipse Party at Houge that night, so if you don’t have other plans, drop by and join the fun! The moon won’t rise above the buildings until about 7 p.m. when totality starts, but the rest of the eclipse should be visible.

While you’re waiting for the moon to rise, see how early you can spot Mars! The red planet is just a month past opposition and should still be very bright. It’s ideally placed for observing, transiting at 80 degrees up – almost overhead! – at about 10 p.m. On the 20th while waiting for the eclipse to start, Mars is showing the Tharsis plateau and Valles Marineris, with Acidalium and Erythraeum disappearing off the eastern limb and Sirenum rotating in from the west. (That’s Mars’ east and west; reverse east and west if you want the directions in our sky.)

We get a good look at Syrtis Major during the first week of the month if you do most of your observing at about 8-9 p.m. A week later, you’ll be looking at Cimmerium in the south and the subtle Cerberus, Elysium and the wonderfully named Trivium Charontis in the north. Finally, the week after the eclipse you’ll see the complex Erythraeum complex stretching from the equator southward, and Acidalium, Niliacus Lacus and Nilokeras in the northeast. By late in the month, Mars is already shrinking, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop looking — you’ll probably be able to see some decent detail for another month yet, at least if the weather cooperates more than it did in December and January.

Saturn is well placed for observing as well. It rises just before sunset and is visible all night. The rings are only tilted about 8.5 degrees, a big change from the wide-open rings of a few years ago.

None of the other planets are particularly well placed. Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Pluto are all fairly close to the sun in the late morning sky, while Uranus and Neptune are completely lost in the sun’s glare.