As long as the clouds cooperate, northeastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks have the potential for a great view of the total lunar eclipse that starts late Thursday and lasts into early Friday morning.
But you’ll have to be a night owl, or at least set an alarm for the middle of the night, to enjoy the cosmic show that comes our way for the first time since 2021.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow.
In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. When the Moon is within the umbra, it appears red-orange.
Sunlight appears white, but it actually contains a rainbow of components—and different colors of light have different physical properties.
Blue light scatters relatively easily as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere. Reddish light, on the other hand, travels more directly through the air.
When the Sun is high on a clear day, we see blue light scattered throughout the sky overhead.
At sunrise and sunset, when the Sun is near the horizon, incoming sunlight travels a longer, low-angle path through Earth’s atmosphere to observers on the ground.
The bluer part of the sunlight scatters away in the distance (where it’s still daytime), and only the yellow-to-red part of the spectrum reaches our eyes.
During a lunar eclipse, the Moon appears red or orange because any sunlight that’s not blocked by our planet is filtered through a thick slice of Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the lunar surface. It’s as if all the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon.
You don’t need any special equipment to observe a lunar eclipse, although binoculars or a telescope will enhance the view. A dark environment away from bright lights makes for the best viewing conditions.
NASA adds to look to the western sky on the night of the eclipse for a glimpse of planets Jupiter and Mars.
The Moon will be in the constellation Leo, under the lion’s hind paw, at the beginning of the eclipse; soon afterward, it will cross into the constellation Virgo.
As Earth’s shadow dims the Moon’s glow, constellations may be easier to spot than usual.
The eclipse will start around 11:57 p.m. over the Outer Banks and northeastern North Carolina, as the penumbral eclipse begins when the Moon enters the Earth’s penumbra, the outer part of the shadow. The Moon begins to dim, but the effect is quite subtle.
The partial eclipse begins around 1:09 a.m., as the Moon begins to enter Earth’s umbra and the partial eclipse begins. To the naked eye, as the Moon moves into the umbra, it looks like a bite is being taken out of the lunar disk. The part of the Moon inside the umbra appears very dark.
Totality begins at 2:26 a.m. when the entire Moon is now in the Earth’s umbra. The Moon is tinted a coppery red. Try binoculars or a telescope for a better view. If you want to take a photo, use a camera on a tripod with exposures of at least several seconds.
Totality ends at 3:31 a.m. as the Moon exits Earth’s umbra, and the red color fades. It looks as if a bite is being taken out of the opposite side of the lunar disk from before.
The partial eclipse ends at 4:47 a.m. as the whole Moon is in Earth’s penumbra, but again, the dimming is subtle. And the eclipse will be over at 6 a.m.
However, the forecast for the region early Friday morning is for mostly cloudy skies, so we will likely have to catch a view between breaks in the clouds.
Temperatures are forecast to drop to 50 degrees on the northern beaches, 57 on Hatteras and Ocracoke, and 46 for inland areas.
So grab a jacket or sweatshirt and the binoculars before you head out the door to enjoy the show.
