Weather permitting, folks across Louisiana and elsewhere will be entertained by a nearly total lunar eclipse early tomorrow morning. What you’ll see from Geoff Clayton, who is a professor in the LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. “The way that we see the moon is with the light from the sun reflecting off it, the moon does give off any light itself. So, if we block off that light from the sun, then the moon gets darker,” says Clayton.
The event will last for several hours peaking at around 3:03 Friday morning.
Professor Clayton says that while the almost-total lunar eclipse will begin around midnight, it will become most noticeable around 2:45 as it turns a reddish color and darkens, reaching its peak just after 3 a.m. Friday. He says, “that’s when it’s almost completely covered” although it will be only 97 percent impacted by the eclipse, something Clayton says you probably won’t notice. ‘
Clayton talks about why the lunar eclipse is so interesting to see: “The moon can take on this really red color which is caused by the sun’s rays bending through the earth’s atmosphere,” says Clayton which is similar to some sunsets.
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