People living in North and South America will get a special treat this coming April 15. Experts say that the upcoming lunar eclipse will be visible in the Western Hemisphere and the Americas will be given VIP seats to the coming show.
The upcoming lunar eclipse next week will be the first of four total lunar eclipses in the coming year and a half. A series of four total eclipses without any partial eclipses is referred to as a lunar tetrad. Lunar tetrads are relatively uncommon but they can be predicted fairly accurately.
The total lunar eclipse that will happen April 15 will occur early in the morning, around 3:06 a.m. EDT. The eclipse will last a total of 78 minutes and will end at 4:24: a.m. EDT. Since a total lunar eclipse is expected, moon gazers may be treated to a "blood moon," in which the moon will appear to be dyed a deep shade of red. Since direct light from the sun is blocked off by the Earth, the moon only receives light refracted from the Earth's atmosphere. This phenomenon makes the moon appear red or dark orange.
Unlike solar eclipses, a lunar eclipse can be viewed across the side of the Earth facing the moon during the eclipse. Solar eclipses are only visible in a relatively smaller area while the coming lunar eclipse will be visible across the entire Western Hemisphere. The moon will rise in the western Pacific area and the best seats in the house will be in North and South America. The eclipse will be partially visible in parts of the Pacific. Unfortunately, Africa and Europe will miss most of the good parts and experts say that there won't be a whole lot to see in these areas. On the upside, an upcoming solar eclipse will be visible in the Southern Hemisphere this coming April 29.
This is a good century for lunar eclipses and astronomers predict that at least eight lunar eclipses will occur. In the 20th century, only five were observed and none were seen during the preceding 200 years.
After the April 15 lunar eclipse, the next eclipse of the tetrad will occur on Oct. 8. Another eclipse will occur on April 4, 2015, while the last one will occur on Sept. 28, 2015. The last time a lunar tetrad occurred was between 2004 and 2005.
