Lunar

View The June 15th Total Lunar Eclipse Via The Internet

June 13, 2011

June 15th Total Lunar Eclipse Timing Chart

An upcoming total lunar eclipse will happen on June 15, 2011 and it’s a rare one. The Moon will pass directly through the center of the Earth’s shadow cone; an event that hasn’t happened in 11 years and won’t happen again until 2018. The eclipse will be visible over Africa, and Central Asia, visible rising over South America, western Africa, and Europe, and setting over eastern Asia. In western Asia, Australia and the Philippines. Though not visible here in the USA, we can still watch the eclipse thanks to the magic we call the Internet. All you need to...

NASA Scientists Discover Lunar Watershed

May 26, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Orange lunar soil collected by Apollo 17 points at a much wetter Moon. Credit: NASA.

A team of NASA-funded researchers has measured for the first time water from the moon in the form of tiny globules of molten rock, which have turned to glass-like material trapped within crystals. Data from these newly-discovered lunar melt inclusions indicate the water content of lunar magma is 100 times higher than previous studies suggested. The inclusions were found in lunar sample 74220, the famous high-titanium “orange glass soil” of volcanic origin collected during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The scientific team used a state-of-the-art ion microprobe instrument to measure the water content of the inclusions, which were...

Super Full Moon – March 19th, 2011

March 17, 2011

By Michael Muracco

On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It’s a super “perigee moon”–the biggest in almost 20 years. “The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” says Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC. “I’d say it’s worth a look.” Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee). Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger...

Did Earth Once Share It’s Orbit With A Planet Named Theia?

February 25, 2011

By Michael Muracco

Did Earth Once Share It’s Orbit With A Planet Named Theia?

Hidden in the mass of data from the Kepler telescope is a planetary system that has two of its apparent planets share the same orbit around their star. If the discovery is confirmed, it would support the theory that Earth once shared its orbit with a Mars-sized body, labeled Theia, that later collided with it, creating the moon. The two planets are part of a four-planet system dubbed KOI-730. They circle their sun-like parent star every 9.8 days at exactly the same orbital distance, one permanently about 60 degrees ahead of the other. In the night sky of one...

Total Lunar Eclipse on December 21, 2010

January 31, 2011

By admin

Total Lunar Eclipse on December 21, 2010

The last total lunar eclipse occurred on Feb. 20, 2008. While there are two total lunar eclipses in 2011, North American skywatchers will have to wait until April 2014 for one as potentially spectacular as the eclipse occurring this month. For the Western Hemisphere, the eclipse will begin on Dec. 21 at 12:29 a.m. EST (9:29 p.m. PST on Dec. 20) as the moon begins to enter Earth’s outer, or penumbral, shadow. This total lunar eclipse lasts only 72 minutes from start to finish. Skywatchers will not notice any changes in the moon’s appearance until about 45 minutes into...

A Super Harvest Moon

January 31, 2011

By admin

For the first time in almost 20 years, northern autumn is beginning on the night of a full Moon. The coincidence sets the stage for a “Super Harvest Moon” and a must-see sky show to mark the change of seasons. The action begins at sunset on Sept 22nd, the last day of northern summer. As the sun sinks in the west, bringing the season to a close, the full Harvest Moon will rise in the east, heralding the start of fall. The two sources of light will mix together to create a kind of 360-degree, summer-autumn twilight glow that...