Greetings, everyone,

This coming Wednesday morning will be the second of four successive total lunar eclipses spanning the 2014/2015 years. Having a series of four total lunar eclipses (solar eclipses don’t count) with no partials in between is known as a tetrad. The first of these occurred back in April of this year (I got not only clouded out, but thunderstormed out), the second happens in less than two days, the next two happen next year. The last tetrad occurred during 2003/2004, the next tetrad won’t be until 2032/2033.

The 2014/2015 tetrad of eclipses has been/will be visible from greater North America in some way, shape, or form, portions of South America, eastern Asia, and Australia. (sorry, Europe and Africa are getting shut out of this – but then you guys in Africa had a nice total-to-annular solar eclipse last year 😉 ).

This second eclipse will, unfortunately, not be well-placed to viewing for those in the eastern portion of North America, as the Moon will be setting during or shortly after it reaches total eclipse, minutes before sunrise. For those in the same time zone as Maryland, the Moon will reach maximum eclipse (at 6:55am) a mere 16 minutes before sunrise. (7:11am). The saving grace is that it will just get fully covered by Earth’s shadow just before 6:30am – but it is going to be very low in the western sky.

However, for those of you on the West Coast of North America, and in the greater Pacific region, you’ll have an opportunity to witness the entire event from start to finish.

For the East Coasters, the eclipse really won’t get underway in any meaningful manner until ~5:15am. So you don’t have to stay up all night for this (you do, however, have to get up REALLY early! 😉 ).

As always, here are some links for you to check out for more information:

Time And Date.com:

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2014-october-8

Space.com notes that this particular eclipse may be a ‘selenelion’ for some folks – meaning that due to Earth’s atmosphere’s refraction properties, you will be able to see the moon fully in Earth’s shadow at the same time as the sun rises! But you will need VERY flat, open, and uncluttered eastern and western horizons to see this.
http://www.space.com/27338-total-lunar-eclipse-rare-sunrise-selenelion.html

More diagrams and maps here:

http://www.eclipsewise.com/lunar/LEnews/TLE2014Oct08/TLE2014Oct08.html

and here:

http://www.space.com/27342-total-lunar-eclipse-images-october-2014.html

Animation graphic of the Moon’s path through Earth’s shadow will be the morning of October 8^th:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Animation_October_8_2014_lunar_eclipse_appearance.gif

If you want to really get your geek on, you can play around with this page, the United States Naval Observatory’s eclipse calculator:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.php

As a side note, toward the end of the month there will be an opportunity to catch a partial solar eclipse in a small section of the world (mostly the entirety of North America). More details (and eclipse coverage maps) here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2014-october-23

and here (among other sites, if you decide to google around) :

http://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEprime/2001-2100/SE2014Oct23Pprime.html

Right now, for me, the local weather forecast is…less than stellar (more like clouds and rain – almost a repeat of this past April’s eclipse ). But hopefully the skies will clear. And hopefully they’ll be clear for you, too. Good luck, and enjoy!

Mk