Early risers in the Westman Region will have a chance to see a total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning, with the maximum eclipse expected around 5:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
Kenton Dyck of the Pembina Valley Astro Club says the event will be the only lunar eclipse visible in the region this year \u2014 and no special equipment is required.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo tomorrow morning we have the lunar eclipse,\u201d Dyck said. \u201cWhat makes this one special, it’s going to be our only one this year that we will be able to see. And you don’t need any special gear for it. You just need the old “Mark 1 eyeball”.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When to watch<\/p>\n
Dyck says the eclipse will begin in the early morning hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo at 2:45 AM is when it’s going to start,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd right around 5 o’clock is when you’ll get that the totality where it’ll turn that eerie blood red that you see.\u201d<\/p>\n
He later clarified that maximum eclipse will be at approximately 5:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe maximum eclipse is at 5.30,\u201d Dyck said. \u201cAnd all you’ll have to do is go outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recommends looking toward the west-southwest sky around 5 a.m. as the Moon begins to take on a reddish hue.<\/p>\n
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Why the Moon turns red<\/p>\n
A total lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, with the Earth positioned between the Sun and the Moon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, what’s happening is it’s going to be the sun, the earth and then the moon,\u201d Dyck said.<\/p>\n
He explains the red colour is caused by the way sunlight passes through Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you ever noticed that when the sun sets and rises, it’s red,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s because our atmosphere acts sort of like a prism.\u201d<\/p>\n
As sunlight enters the atmosphere, blue light scatters while red light bends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blue rays are being scattered upwards, which is why you have a nice blue sky,\u201d Dyck said. \u201cAnd what’s happening in this case, right around 5 o’clock, look to the west, southwest, and you’ll see the moon turn this lovely red color. And the reason for that is it’s the sunlight, as it’s right in our shadow, it’s the sunlight being bent around the planet. And all you’re getting is just the red rays hitting the sun. The blue rays have been scattered past it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenton Dyck during a previous visit to the Eagle studio, giving host Jayme Giesbrecht control of the telescope<\/p>\n
No telescope required<\/p>\n
While Dyck spent part of the weekend carefully cleaning his telescope mirrors in preparation for spring viewing, he says this event does not require any equipment.<\/p>\n
Dyck added that weather conditions will determine how clearly the eclipse can be seen, but as long as cloud cover is limited, the event should be visible to anyone willing to step outside before sunrise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early risers in the Westman Region will have a chance to see a total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-510579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}