“The Sky This Week” appears every Tuesday. It is written by Ian Clarke, Director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. The planetarium offers regular educational presentations about the stars and the skies; there’s something for early elementary through adults. Field trip requests are welcome. NOTE: field trip request form for Fall 2022 is now live, and the schedule of free public shows has been posted. The next public show is Thursday, November 3, at 12:00 Noon.
We’ve got a big event this week, a total lunar eclipse on the night of November 7-8. This will be our second total eclipse of the moon of 2022, but the last one visible locally until March 2025.You don’t need any special equipment to see a lunar eclipse, though binoculars may improve your view. To see the most, get up about 4:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday morning and find the full moon. (The moon is always full during a lunar eclipse.) At 4:09, the curved, dark shadow (umbra) of the earth will begin its march across the face of the moon, completely covering it at 5:17. The moon won’t become totally dark even then due to indirect sunlight refracting through the earth’s atmosphere. Usually, the eclipsed moon looks orange, but the exact shade depends on the amount of dust in the earth’s upper atmosphere. In this eclipse, the eastern U.S. won’t be able to see the entire show because of the approaching sunrise. When totality ends at 6:42, the sun will be rising, and the moon will be setting. If you can’t manage to get up at 4:00, try for 5:00. You’ll get to see the eclipse transition from partial to total (5:17) while the sky is still fairly dark.
Ian Clarke is the director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. In addition he has taught introductory astronomy labs and first-year writing there for over 30 years (not necessarily all at the same time). He was educated at Biglerville High School, the University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa. He lives in Gettysburg.