Montana Skies: Lunar eclipse

In tonight's Montana Skies Dr. Kelly Cline gives us a good reason to wake up just before 7am put on some warm clothes and step outside.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we've got a big event coming up tomorrow morning, a total eclipse of the Moon!  On Saturday morning, the Moon will begin moving into the Earth's shadow at about 5am.  At 7:05, the entire Moon will totally be in the Earth's shadow, and you wouldn't be able to see the Sun from anywhere on the Moon.  The edge of the Moon will begin to move out at about 8am, but that's sunrise, so it's too late to see anything by then anyways.  So 7am is a great time to wrap up warm, go out into a cold December morning and see a real eclipse of the Moon!  You'll find the Moon low in the Western sky in the constellation Taurus the Bull.  But wait a minute!  This is an eclipse, right?  At 7am, tomorrow morning, the Moon will be completely in the Earth's shadow, right?  So, what's to see?  What is this, some goofy practical joke?  The astronomer says:  "Go outside at 7am on a Saturday in December face west, and that's where you WON'T see the moon!"  Later on you can compare notes with your neighbors, "Did you see get up and NOT see the Moon this morning?"  "Oh, yeah!  I didn't see it either!  Hooray!"  Well don't worry, you CAN see the Moon during an eclipse, and it looks something like this:

You'll see a dark, reddish brown shadow across the Moon, because the light reaching the Moon is passing through the Earth's atmosphere.  The Moon is receiving light from all the world's sunrises and sunsets, which creates an amazing sight, sometimes called a blood-moon. So get up tomorrow morning at 7am, and check out a real eclipse of the Moon low in the West, in our beautiful Montana Skies!