Saturday, September 26, 2015

Six things not to miss on super-eclipse on Sunday – Il Sole 24 Ore

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This article was published September 26, 2015 at 15:27.

Great show on the night of Sunday, September 27, and Monday. The great theater of the sky, free admission, it is a splendid lunar eclipses, clouds permitting. You see without paying anything, it is one of the great spectacles of nature, but the schedule of representation is a little ‘uncomfortable. It starts after 2 hours of Monday morning, the beautiful and bright full moon will begin to darken, then we will have about 11 to 4. the beginning of the real total eclipse will end at 5:23. Here are six things to keep in mind

1) Entertainment so long compared to the eclipse of the sun that usually last less than 10 minutes, thanks to the fact that the shadow that the Earth casts toward Luna is quite large, a sort of long tunnel that our satellite must travel to re-emerge in the area where it is again fully illuminated by the Sun, after 6 hours in this case.

2) The eclipse is a natural phenomenon and simple, due to the geometry of the Sun, Earth, Moon. When the three bodies are aligned in that sunlight can be blocked by the Earth and then we eclipse of the moon, we eclipse it wants to say their absence. As the moon rotates around the Earth one might wonder, rightly, why lunar eclipses do not occur every month. It ‘very simple: the Sun, Earth and Moon have orbits inclined to each other. In schools is easily demonstrated by putting a nice grapefruit on a table, the sun, a bit ‘far is put a walnut, Earth, and next to her a small ball of aluminum foil, the Moon, the ball remains on the table but no runs around the walnut now going on under the table now, in 29 days. So eclipses may occur only when the three bodies are aligned, all three on the table in our example, and this is just around the equinoxes of spring and autumn.

3) But let the fact that this eclipse will also “super”, as announced by now for days and weeks together the usual prophecies of catastrophe due to the fact that the Moon will become “the color of blood.”

4) Leaving aside the nonsense this eclipse will actually be a bit ‘special, since the Moon will be very close to us, and then we will see a bit’ bigger, about 14 % more. Our satellite in fact revolves around us in an elliptical orbit, and not circular, and so sometimes it is closer other farther Its distance from us varies between 356,410 and 406,740 km. Having therefore these days more illuminated surface, than we of course as closer, will also be brighter, but to realize it must have seen it before the Full Moon carefully. It can however also backwards, that look this time and then do the comparison in the coming months, plus the Moon is always a beautiful sight to behold.

5) It is the red, actually between the pink and orange, we take on the Moon during totality, between 4 and 5 am Monday morning. This is also a very simple phenomenon and beautiful to see. The sunlight hits the Earth with its shadow during the lunar eclipse, the Moon covers. If it were not for the terrestrial atmosphere the Moon would disappear entirely from the sky, but thanks just the air that surrounds us, to one hundred kilometers, sunlight is diffused, as the fog, and it falls on the face of the Moon , with a wavelength slightly different, since the switch into the atmosphere turns the light from white to reddish.

6) So no blood nor misfortunes, completely normal for a phenomenon among the most beautiful in the sky, which can also take place twice a year, in spring and autumn. With the so-called super moon eclipses have about every 30 years, but also the other are beautiful. Those unwilling to then get up at 4 in the morning, will definitely see it on the network in less than hour before dawn as if someone tic get up on purpose and, damn it, it was cloudy, NASA can tune to channel that will broadcast the eclipse.



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