Total Lunar Eclipse

Next Saturday, on the 10th of December, a total lunar eclipse will be visible in all of Norway and in large parts of northern Europe, North America and Asia.

Here in Norway, the eclipse will be visible in all of the country. In southern Norway, however, the eclipse will start before the Moon has climbed over the horizon so the beginning of the eclipse won`t be visible. In Northern Norway the entire eclipse will be visible and the Moon will be relatively high in the north-east during the peak of the eclipse.

The eclipse will start at 13:45 (i.e. first umbral contact) and the moon will be totally eclipsed for almost an hour (51 minutes) between 15:06 - 15:57. The last umbral contact will be at 17.18.

Please note that the times are given in local time for Norway, so for universal time (UT) you will have to subtract an hour, so the totality will therefore be between 14:06 - 14:57 UT.

For details check NASAs lunar eclipse page: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#LE2011Dec10T

The Moon will be good placed in the sky, so there should be plenty of nice photo-opportunities, weather permitting. Below is s picture from the total lunar eclipse in December last year, when thin clouds covered the moon. The next total lunar eclipse in Norway won`t be until 2015, so grap the chance and go out and watch the Moon `disappear` next Saturday afternoon !

Total lunar eclipse of 21 December 2010

Total lunar eclipse of 21 December 2010