Total Lunar Eclipse October 2014 Featuring Blood Moon from Hanoi

Eclipse is in the air ! In my life as an amateur astronomer I’ve had a lot of fun with solar eclipses, but now it’s the time to mingle a bit with lunar eclipses. As I blog this entry from Hanoi, both penumbral and partial phases of today’s total lunar eclipse have already started. But what am I doing sitting down in front of a laptop and not out there observing ? I’ve got my reasons though. In fact in Hanoi it is 16:30h now and we’re still experiencing the daylight. However in an hour or so, it should start to get darker, as the autumnal night engulfs the last remaining bits of sunlight, thus providing better and favorable conditions for the eclipse watch.

I’m getting my binoculars ready and see what I can see. Hopefully I could make friends with the weather and witness the second of what is referred to as a tetrad (four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six lunar months – six full moons). FYI – The first of the tetrad took place on 15 April 2014 and the remainder would follow on 4 April 2015 and 28 September 2015.

The Moon during the totality is expected to be seen reddened due to the scattering of light in the terrestrial stratosphere. It is also noteworthy that this lunar eclipse is attributed with what is called as blood Moon in some of the social media and websites. Apparently there is some religious reference to that.

As far as the visibility of this eclipse is concerned, those who are from North America will be able to observe the eclipse after midnight on Wednesday, October 8, whereas the observers from the Western Pacific, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and western Asia will be able to witness the eclipse after sunset on the evening of October 8. You may use the following link to check the visibility of the eclipse in your area:  http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2014-october-8

If you’re a keen observer, there is a good chance that coincidentally you can observe Uranus during this eclipse as Uranus is at opposition within a close proximity of just over 1° to the eclipsed Moon.

So folks, good luck with your eclipse hunt !