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Lunar Eclipse on New Year's Eve
On New Year's Eve the Earth will cast a shadow deep into space onto the Moon, our nearest neighbour, in a partial lunar eclipse. Incidentally, the Full Moon on New Year's Eve will be a Blue Moon - the second Full Moon in the month.
This will be the first eclipse of the Moon to be seen on a New Year's Eve
since 1656, that's 353 years ago. So this is a unique way to ring out 2009 and
ring in 2010, the year of our 20th Birthday, so why not start your
celebrations with an "Eclipse Party" and tell us how you got on?
The partial lunar eclipse rings out a very successful United Nations International Year of Astronomy, where over 160 nations came together to celebrate 400 years of astronomy, since Galileo first pointed his telescope at the night sky. 2010 is another year to celebrate, as it is Astronomy Ireland's 20th birthday, and will be packed full of events.
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The Moon will enter the deep part of Earth's shadow just before 7pm, and the
eclipse will be best seen between 7pm and 8pm. With the middle (deepest) part of
the eclipse coming at 7:22pm when 8% of the Moon will be invisible inside the
Earth's shadow as the photo shows. Watch closely, and you will see the Moon become dimmer and dimmer, with a portion of the Moon appearing black.
Impression of the New Year's Eve partial eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun, i.e. the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon. As a result, lunar eclipses always take place during a Full Moon.
TELL US WHAT YOU SEE
Astronomy Ireland will be publishing a full report
of this eclipse in its magazine. So please email us a description of what you
see along with your name and viewing location to observe@astronomy.ie
. If you do take photos please only send your best one or two photos (and try
to keep them below 1MB in size if you can). If you want to get a copy of the
issue with our eclipse report, or sign up for a monthly subscription click
here now: www.astronomy.ie/offer
and get 3 extra issues FREE!
IN THE MEDIA
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