End of the Weekend! Total lunar eclipse and Super (harvest) Moon. A look ahead to the weather prospects for early Monday and the unusual moon view.
Two things are happening this Sunday night, a total lunar eclipse and a so called Super Moon. This combination doesn’t happen that often, about every 18 years and the moon will look pretty special.
A total lunar eclipse is where the moon is totally in the earth's shadow and so receives no direct light from the sun. As a result the moon takes on a reddish brown tinge.
This weekend is a special occurrence because there will be a super Moon, this eclipse is occurring when the moon is at its closest pass to the earth (perigee) and so appears larger in the sky. It’s not actually 'super'; it just looks larger than usual. The full moon closest in time to the autumn equinox is known as a Harvest Moon. This extra lunar light helped farmers to gather in their harvest through the night.
Timings
For the UK, the total lunar eclipse runs from 03:11 early Monday til 04:23, with signs of the partial eclipse showing from just after 2am til nearly 5:30am. This is a steadier show than a solar eclipse so if you are venturing out for a view, there is plenty of time, 03:47 is the time of maximum eclipse.
What about the UK weather?
There is high pressure for this weekend which means a lot of settled, calm but chilly weather. Problems will be low cloud and fog forming. However, there is hope for clear skies, it won’t be raining but you will need to wrap up warm.
Updates on the cloud cover to come , or keep an eye on the forecast here
If you don't fancy getting up out of your warm bed, NASA are doing a live feed http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/live-feed-of-sundays-supermoon-eclipse.html
