Lunar Eclipse 2018- How To See The Moon

Weather permitting, get ready for a beautiful celestial sight on Friday 27 July and Saturday 28 July, when a total lunar eclipse will be visible from almost all parts of the world. The only people missing out this time are Greenland, Canada and the USA.

From the UK, this spectacular sight will last all evening. As the moon rises at 8:50pm, the eclipse will already be in its total phase and the moon will be a deep-red colour as it climbs into the sky.

All you need is a clear view of the night sky. Your eyes are the best instrument to soak up the sight. If you happen to have a pair of binoculars to hand you can use them to range across the craters of the moon but that’s just icing on the cake.

Best of all, you don’t need to wear special filters or protective glasses to view a lunar eclipse. Unlike a total solar eclipse, where it is dangerous to look at the sun, the moon never gets bright enough to cause a danger to your eyes.

So, pull up a garden chair, invite some friends round, and as you watch the serene eclipse unfold, here are some fun facts to ponder.

Why does the moon turn red?

A total lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Earth and the moon perfectly line up. The most spectacular part about a total lunar eclipse is that when the moon is fully in Earth’s shadow it turns red. This has earned the phenomenon the nickname of blood moon.

The red colour happens because sunlight is deflected through Earth’s atmosphere. The process is called refraction and it bends red light from the sun like a lens into the space behind Earth – and so on to the surface of the eclipsed moon.

The precise colour of the moon depends on the atmospheric conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. The clearer the atmosphere, the brighter and lighter the red colour appears to be.

If Earth had no atmosphere then the totally eclipsed moon would be black. As it is, we stay alive because we have air to breathe and as a bonus we get a beautiful celestial phenomenon to watch. So, a win-win.