Update on eclipse viewing

   On April 4^th at 3:19 UT (10:19 pm CST April 3^rd) our Moon will be at its ascending node, crossing the plane of the ecliptic moving toward the north. a few hours later, at 12:06 UT (1:06 am CST) the Moon will be at its full Moon phase. This combination can mean only one thing – a lunar eclipse.

Total Lunar Eclipse: 0.1 second = 1 minute

The lunar eclipse begins early in the morning on Saturday from where I live within the Central Time Zone in the U.S.A. The lunar eclipse will be in progress when the Moon sets at sunrise my local time. Starting at 09:01 UT (04:01 am CST) the Moon will enter the Earth’s fainter outer shadow, the penumbra and during nearly the next six hours the Moon will follow a path taking it across the upper most part of the northern half of the Earth’s darker inner shadow, the umbra. This will be a rather short total lunar eclipse only lasting approximately 5 minutes.
This total lunar eclipse will be visible from across the entire continental United States and the duration of the eclipse visible from your particular time zone will be determined by your local time for moonset. Determining the times for the Moon and Sun to rise and set for that day or any day may be obtained from local newspapers or from the US Naval Observatory web site.
   Adding to viewing the lunar eclipse will be the bluish-white star Spica in the constellation of Virgo the Harvest Maiden. The two will be separated by about 9^o

Eclipse Stages	                  Time: UTC	Time: CST
Penumbral eclipse begins:	09:01:27 UT    04:01 CST
Partial eclipse begins:	        10:15:45 UT    05:15 CST
Total eclipse begins:	        11:57:54 UT    06:57 CST
Maximum eclipse:	        12:00:15 UT    07:00 CST
Total eclipse ends:	        12:02:37 UT    07:02 CST
Sunrise                                        06:58 CST
Moonset                                        07:04 CST
Partial eclipse ends:	        13:44:46 UT    08:44 CST
Penumbral eclipse ends:	        14:58:58 UT    09:58 CST

Additional information about this eclipse from Hermit Eclipse, or download this eclipse description from NASA: Total Lunar Eclipse

This lunar eclipse is the 3^rd of 4 total lunar eclipses that have been visible from the U.S.A. over the past 1.5 years.

The next total lunar eclipse visible from the U.S.A.

2015 28 September