By Adithi Ramakrishnan
New York (AP) – A Total lunar eclipse shall Rinse the moon red Thursday evening to Friday morning in the western hemisphere.
The best views come from North America and South America. Parts of Africa and Europe can catch a glimpse.
Lunar blackouts happen when the moon, the earth and the sun come apart exactly. The earth casts a shadow that can partially Or blot the moon completely.
During a partial lunar eclipse, the shadow of the earth seems to take a bite of the moon. The full moon is covered during a total solar eclipse and blushed copper -like red because of stray bits that filter through the atmosphere of the earth.
According to NASA, Lunar and Solar Definements happen everywhere from four to seven times a year. A partial lunar eclipse adorned the skies in America, Africa and Europe last September and the last total lunar eclipse was in 2022.
How to see the lunar eclipse
The so -called Blood Moon is visible for about an hour from 2:26 am Eastern on Friday morning. Peak -view will be eastern for almost 3 hours.
To see it, you venture out and look up – no eclipse glasses or special equipment required.
“As long as the air is clear, you should be able to see it,” says Shannon Schmoll, director of Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University.
The setting of the moon can make it more difficult to see the solar eclipse in Europe and Africa.
“This is really a solar eclipse for North and South America,” said astronomy expert Michael Faison of Yale University.
If you miss, mark your agenda before September 7. Another total lunar eclipse will wipe over parts of Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. Parts of America will receive their next taste in March 2026.
History of Eclipsen
Civilizations have viewed and interpreted lunar eclipses for thousands of years. Old people knew more about the heavenly bodies than what we give them the honor, said historian Zoe Ortiz.
“They looked at the nocturnal heaven and they had a much brighter vision than today,” said Ortiz at the University of Noord -Texas.
Aristotle noted that the shadow that the earth cast on the moon was always bent during a lunar eclipse, observations that show that the earth is round.
And a civilization in ancient Mesopotamia saw the blood -red moon as a bad omen for the king. The people installed a replacement king on the throne around the time of the eclipse to protect their ruler against bad will.
“If there is ever a film plot,” said Ortiz, “that’s the one.”
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