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Total Lunar Eclipse August 28th 2007

The second lunar eclipse of the year is another total eclipse. It is a deeper event since it is the first central total eclipse since 2000. The eclipse occurs at the ascending node of Luna’s orbit in southern Aquarius. Since the Moon is 2.6 days shy of perigee, it will appear 8% larger (= 1.2 arc-minutes) than it was during March’s eclipse. The Moon’s trajectory takes it deep into the southern umbral shadow, resulting in a total eclipse that lasts 90 minutes. At mid-totality the Moon’s centre passes just 12.8 arc-minutes south of the shadow axis. This places the Moon’s northern limb only 3.4 arc-minutes north of the axis while the southern limb is 15.4 arc-minutes from the umbra’s southern edge.

Since different parts of the Moon will probe radically different portions of Earth’s umbral shadow, a large variation in shadow brightness can be expected. As a consequence of this geometry, the southern half of the totally eclipsed Moon will appear considerably brighter than the northern half. Observers are encouraged to estimate the Danjon value at mid-totality

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# 22/08/2007 in uncategorized

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