Best seats for a great show

A long exposure photograph of the eclipse in May last year. Photo: Ian Griffin
A long exposure photograph of the eclipse in May last year. Photo: Ian Griffin
It's looking like clear skies in the South on Tuesday night to experience one of nature’s most spectacular light shows - a total lunar eclipse. Otago Museum's Ian Griffin tells us why  it's a special event. 

Weather permitting, late on Tuesday we get to experience the second total lunar eclipse of 2022. New Zealand only saw the end of this year’s first eclipse in May. Despite this, stargazers here enjoyed fine views of the partially eclipsed moon as it rose.

On November 8, we are perfectly placed to luxuriate in nearly six hours of eclipse beauty. Putting it bluntly, we have some of the best seats on Earth to witness one of nature’s most spectacular light shows. Cancel your plans for Tuesday night, gather the whanau and get ready to observe something truly wonderful!

During a lunar eclipse, Earth passes directly between Sun and the moon, cutting off direct sunlight. Over several hours, the bright full moon darkens as it is covered by the shadow of our planet. Once the shadow completely covers the moon, the only sunlight reaching the lunar surface is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere.

Any astronauts on the moon looking at their home world would see our planet’s night side surrounded by a red ring. They would be simultaneously seeing every sunset on Earth! This is why, as well as going dark, the moon generally changes to an orange-red hue during an eclipse. The precise colour you see depends on what’s going on in Earth’s atmosphere, which is another reason for excitement.

Earth’s dark shadow first falls on the lower right part of the moon at 10.10pm. For the next 67 minutes, the dark shadow will cover more and more of the lunar surface. At 11.16pm the moon will be completely covered. It remains fully covered until 12.41am on November 9, when the lower right part of the moon will brighten. The partial phase of the eclipse will end at 1.49am.

One final piece of advice. View this eclipse away from city lights. It is incredible to experience the transformation of a bright moonlit sky into a really dark night.

The next total lunar eclipse visible from New Zealand isn’t until March 14, 2025 - so if you miss this one there’s some time until the next comes along.