A total lunar eclipse will paint the Moon over the local area a brilliant orange color this coming early Friday morning.
Some residents may have noticed that the Moon is brighter than usual the past night or two. That’s because the Moon is aligning itself perfectly with the Sun as more of its light shines upon the Moon.
Norbert Vance is the Sherzer Observatory Director at Eastern Michigan University. He says the lunar eclipse’s color comes from sunlight meeting the Earth’s shadow.
“It’s like a thousand sunsets of the Earth being projected back onto the Moon. So, it’s the sunlight passing through the Earth’s atmosphere that’s curved and passes on to the surface of the Moon giving it that color.”
Vance says he predicts the skies will be partly cloudy early Friday morning. Then, from 2:26 to 3:31 AM, the sky will be illuminated deep orange as the eclipse reaches totality.
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