Residents of South Florida will have the chance to witness one of the year\u2019s most striking astronomical events overnight from Thursday (Aug. 27) to Friday (Aug. 28), when a near-total lunar eclipse will be visible from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. <\/p>\n
The phenomenon will come very close to being a total eclipse because the moon will move deep into the umbra, the darkest part of the shadow cast by our planet, leaving only a small fraction still directly lit by the sun.<\/p>\n
From Miami, the eclipse will cover about 93% of the moon\u2014enough that, at times, it may look like a total eclipse.<\/p>\n
The good news for South Florida is that the eclipse will be visible from start to finish, as long as clouds cooperate. Plus, during the most important part of the event, the moon will be relatively high in the sky, making it easier to watch even from metro areas.<\/p>\n
When can I watch the eclipse in South Florida?<\/p>\n
Here’s the timeline for Miami and much of Southeast Florida:<\/p>\n
9:23 p.m. \u2013 Penumbral eclipse begins<\/p>\n
The moon starts to enter the faintest part of Earth\u2019s shadow. The change will be very subtle at first and may be hard to notice with the naked eye. From Miami, the moon will be just above the horizon to the east-southeast.<\/p>\n
10:33 p.m. \u2013 Partial eclipse begins<\/p>\n
This is when the show really begins. The umbra\u2014Earth\u2019s dark shadow\u2014will start to visibly cover the lunar disk. The moon will be above the horizon to the southeast.<\/p>\n
12:12 a.m. \u2013 Eclipse maximum<\/p>\n
The most impressive moment arrives shortly after midnight, already into Friday, Aug. 28. The moon will be deeply immersed in Earth\u2019s shadow and may take on reddish, coppery, or orange tones. From Miami, it will be toward the south-southeast.<\/p>\n
1:51 a.m. \u2013 Partial eclipse ends<\/p>\n
The Moon will finish exiting Earth\u2019s umbra. From here, the most obvious dark portion of the shadow will fade away.<\/p>\n
3:01 a.m. \u2013 Penumbral eclipse ends<\/p>\n
The moon will fully leave Earth\u2019s shadow, and the eclipse will be over.<\/p>\n
In total, the event will last about 5 hours and 38 minutes, while the most dramatic partial phase will run for roughly 3 hours and 18 minutes.<\/p>\n
Where can I watch the eclipse from South Florida?<\/p>\n
As the eclipse begins around 9:23 p.m., you\u2019ll want to look toward the east-southeast. As the night goes on, the moon will continue rising and shifting toward the south.<\/p>\n
At maximum, around 12:12 a.m., it will be about 51 degrees high toward the south-southeast\u2014an excellent position for viewing from the metro area.<\/p>\n
This means you won\u2019t need to travel to a spot with a perfectly unobstructed horizon to catch the main part of the eclipse, though getting away from bright lights can significantly improve the experience.<\/p>\n
Will the weather cooperate in South Florida?<\/p>\n
For now, the forecast adds some uncertainty. Thursday brings a typical summertime pattern\u2014heat, humidity, and the chance of showers and thunderstorms in parts of inland South Florida.<\/p>\n
Forecasts currently call for around a 50% chance of rain or storms on Thursday in rural parts of Miami-Dade.<\/p>\n
For Thursday night, periods of partly cloudy skies are expected, along with a chance of isolated showers or storms. For now, conditions could allow for windows of clear enough sky to watch the moon, but cloud cover will be the deciding factor.<\/p>\n
The most encouraging part is that the eclipse lasts several hours. Even if a cloud blocks the moon temporarily, breaks could open up around the peak between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
Why might the moon look red?<\/p>\n
Although it technically won\u2019t be a total lunar eclipse, most of the moon will be inside Earth\u2019s shadow at maximum.<\/p>\n
Some sunlight passes through our planet\u2019s atmosphere before reaching the moon’s surface. The atmosphere more easily scatters blue wavelengths while allowing more red and orange light to continue on its path.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why the eclipsed portion of the moon can take on red, coppery, or orange hues\u2014especially near 12:12 a.m.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s as if all of the planet\u2019s sunsets were being reflected off the moon’s surface at that moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents of South Florida will have the chance to witness one of the year\u2019s most striking astronomical events…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[83326,15823,28,30,29,123,1064,9097],"class_list":["post-381571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-astronomy","tag-broward","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-miami","tag-miami-dade","tag-palm-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}