A full lunar eclipse takes place during the early morning hours Friday, March 14, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
KEARNEY — A full lunar eclipse took place during the early morning hours of Friday, March 14 and was viewable from all North America.
A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened.
Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon’s orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth’s orbit.
When the Moon is totally eclipsed by the Earth it takes on a reddish color that is caused by the planet when it completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon’s surface, as the only light that is reflected from the lunar surface is what has been refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere.
This light appears reddish due to the Rayleigh scattering of blue light, the same reason sunrises and sunsets are more orange than during the day.
A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly two hours (while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place) because the Moon’s shadow is smaller.
The moment the Moon enters a complete eclipse, the entire surface will become more or less uniformly bright, being able to reveal stars surrounding it. Later, as the Moon’s opposite limb is struck by sunlight, the overall disk will again become obscured.
Several cultures have myths related to lunar eclipses or allude to the lunar eclipse as being a good or bad omen.
The Egyptians saw the eclipse as a sow swallowing the Moon for a short time; other cultures view the eclipse as the Moon being swallowed by other animals, such as a jaguar in Mayan tradition, or a mythical three-legged toad known as Chan Chu in China.
