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LOCAL Thursday 12 May 2022

A blood moon will be visible from Aruba on Sunday, May 15, 2022

Oranjestad - The Moon will First stage brightness and hue. The first
pass through the Earth's The Moon's leading edge is simply how deeply the
shadow, creating a total enters the pale outer fringe Moon goes into the umbra
lunar eclipse. The eclipse of Earth's shadow: the as it passes through; the
will be visible anywhere the penumbra. You probably center of the umbra is dark-
Moon is above the horizon won’t notice anything until er than its edges. The other
at the time, including from the Moon is about halfway factor is the state of Earth's
Africa, the Americas, Eu- across the penumbra. atmosphere. If a major vol-
rope, and French Polyne- canic eruption has recently
sia. The penumbra is the region polluted the stratosphere
where an astronaut stand- with thin global haze, a lu-
“A lunar eclipse happens ing on the Moon would see nar eclipse can be dark
when the Sun, Earth, and Earth covering only part of red, ashen brown, or occa-
a full Moon form a near- the Sun's face. sionally almost black.
perfect lineup in space, in
what is known as syzygy,” Second stage Fourth stage
says Diana Hannikainen, The Moon's leading edge As the Moon continues
Observing Editor at Sky & enters the umbra, the cone moving along its orbit,
Telescope. The Moon slides of Earth's shadow within events replay in reverse
into Earth's shadow, gradu- which the Sun’s completely order. The Moon's edge re-
ally darkening, until the hidden. You should notice emerges into sunlight, end-
entire lunar disk turns from a dramatic darkening on ing totality and beginning
silvery grey to an eerie dim the leading edge of the lu- a partial eclipse again.
orange or red. Then events nar disk. With a telescope,
unfold in reverse order, until you can watch the edge Fifth stage
the Moon returns to full bril- of the umbra slowly engulf- When all of the Moon es-
liance. The whole process ing one lunar feature after capes the umbra, only the
will take about five hours another, as the entire sky last, penumbral shading is
and 20 minutes. You only begins to grow darker. left. Some time later, noth-
need your eyes to see the ing unusual remains.
drama unfold, but if you Third third
have binoculars or a back- The trailing edge of the From Aruba, the Lunar
yard telescope, they'll en- Moon slips into the umbra eclipse will be visible in the
hance the view. for the beginning of total southern sky, weather per-
The events that happen eclipse. But the Moon won't mitting. It will start at 9:32PM
during a total lunar eclipse black out completely: It's and reach maximum at
are more complex and in- sure to glow some shade of 12:11AM, where the maxi-
teresting than many peo- intense orange or red. mum eclipse will last for
ple realize. The event has The red umbral glow can 42 minutes. The Moon will
five stages, each with dif- be quite different from regain total luminosity at
ferent things to watch: one eclipse to the next. 2:50AM (all times given in
Two main factors affect its Aruba time).q