Why You Might See ‘Shooting Stars’ And Uranus During Next Week’s Total Lunar Eclipse

Science

By Jessica On Nov 3, 2022

Women In Longevity And The Renaissance Of The SENS Research…

Apr 17, 2023

See A Moon-Venus Union, The Lyrid Meteor Shower And A Total…

Apr 17, 2023

Next week’s “Blood Moon” total lunar eclipse is the perfect time to go stargazing and … [+] planet-spotting.

getty

Next week’s “Blood Moon” total lunar eclipse is the perfect time to go stargazing and planet-spotting.

The third total lunar eclipse in 18 months, the second in 2022 and the last until 2025 will we seen in the early morning night skies from North America on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.

During the event the Moon will turn a reddish-orange colour for one hour and 25 minutes. However, there are a couple of celestial bonuses in play for this eclipse—the appearance (and possible temporary disappearance, if you’re in Asia) of Uranus as well as the possibility of “shooting stars” around the eclipsed Moon.

Here’s exactly when and how to see this trio of rare celestial sights in the same night sky:

The deep partial eclipse of the Moon of November 19, 2021, with the reddened Moon below the Pleiades … [+] star cluster, M45, in Taurus, the hallmark feature of this eclipse which at maximum at 2:03 am MST (about 8 minutes after this sequence was taken at 1:55 am MST) was 97% partial, so not quite total. The southern limb of the Moon remained bright and outside the umbra, making this a very challenging scene to capture and process, to bring out the Pleiades and its nebulosity without blowing out the Moon too much and suppressing the bright glow around the Moon from the light haze in the sky. However, inevitably, the long exposures add some glow around the Moon, from the bright portion of its disk still in full sunlight. But this is an authentic scene, not a Moon pasted onto a sky background taken on another night to simulate the scene. Taken from a site near Rowley, Alberta after a chase north to get out from under clouds and haze into clearer skies to allow exposures like this to record the starfield. This is a stack of 2 x 30-second exposures at ISO 3200 for the base sky, blended with 30s, 8s, 2s, and 0.6s exposures at ISO 800, all with the Canon EOS R6 camera on the William Optics RedCat astrograph at f/4.9, and on the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracker at the sidereal rate. Images blended with luminosity masks created with ADP Panel Pro/LumiFlow, but with lots of manual manipulation and gradient masks to adjustment layers to smooth the blend. (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VW Pics /Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

VW Pics /Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How to go stargazing during the ‘Blood Moon’

It’s rarely mentioned even by eclipse enthusiasts, but during a total lunar eclipse the night sky is exceptionally dark. There’s a full Moon out—something that typically bleaches the night sky—but its brigtness gets blotted-out during totality.

So for 85 minutes it will be possible to see stars around the Moon. It’s an odd sight. If you’re somewhere really dark then dense star-fields or even the Milky Way will likely become visible.

Look just above the eclipsed Moon and you’ll see the stars of the constellation of Taurus and, best of all, the bright and unforgettable sight of the Pleiades or “Seven Sisters” open cluster (see image above).

How to see ‘shooting stars’ during the ‘Blood Moon’

It could even be possible to capture “shooting stars” during totality because by lucky chance two meteor showers peak in the nights just before and after.

The Southern Taurid and Northern Taurid meteor showers—typically referred to merely as the Taurids—often contain bright, colorful “fireballs,” so it’s worth keeping an eye on the sky around the Moon during totality.

How to see Uranus during the ‘Blood Moon’

Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, will be visible just above and very close to the “Blood Moon” during totality. It’s a distant, faint planet that’s not at all easy to see without binoculars or a telescope. When the Moon is full it’s even tricker to find. However, with the light of the Moon dulled during totality Uranus will likely be revealed very close to it.

From Asia and Alaska the eclipsed Moon will actually occult Uranus, hiding it from view for a short period before it reappears on the other side.

However, these are merely bonus sights to the main event—a full Moon turning red right before your eyes! A total lunar eclipse is the celestial event of fall 2022 and not something you want to miss.

Disclaimer: I am the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechnoCodex is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.