Partial eclipse of the moon Thursday: How to watch online
A partial lunar eclipse will occur Thursday and you can watch it live, right here, beginning at noon Pacific time.
But, be forewarned: This lunar eclipse, the first of 2013, is expected to be spectacularly unspectacular.
NASA describes it as a “barely partial eclipse” because less than 1.5% of the moon will be darkened by Earth’s shadow.
Also, the eclipse will last for just 27 minutes, making it one of the shortest lunar eclipses of the century.
Unfortunately, my fellow North Americans won’t be able to see this short and subtle eclipse by looking up at the night sky because it takes place during our daylight hours when the moon is less visible.
However, the folks at Slooh Space Camera will be live streaming a video feed from a telescope in the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, where the partial eclipse should be visible in its entirety, as long as the weather is cooperative.
The video feed will start at noon PDT and will include commentary from Dr. Lucie Green, a researcher based at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in England. Viewers will be able to pose questions to a panel of experts via Slooh’s homepage, Slooh.com.
A Slooh representative will send the Los Angeles Times a link to the site’s live feed at 11:30 a.m., and we will insert it into the top of this post at that time.
Our sky-watching friends in Europe and Africa can see the eclipse by looking low in the eastern sky just after sunset, according to EarthSky.org, while our friends in the Middle East and western Asia will have to go sky watching around midnight in order to catch the show.
In Australia, Indonesia and eastern Asia, the lunar eclipse will occur just before sunrise Friday. Look for it in the western sky.
And for future eclipse reference, you can always check the U.S. Naval Observatory’s handy Lunar Eclipse Computer to see whether an eclipse will be visible in your area.
