Lunar Eclipse 2021 – live: ‘Longest eclipse in 580 years’ coinciding with ‘blood’ Beaver Moon begins

Why this is the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years

The six-hour-long eclipse on 19 November would be the longest lunar eclipse to occur within a span of 1,000 years.

During the eclipse, the Moon will pass through both the inner and outer portions of the Earth’s shadow.

The outer shadow will be cast on the Moon for about 6 hours and 1 minute, while the umbral eclipse – when the inner shadow will be cast – will last for about 3 hours and 28 minutes.

The last time such a lengthy lunar eclipse took place was on 18 February, 1440, and the next one will not be until 8 February 8, 2669.

The extended duration of the eclipse is because the Moon is currently near its apogee – the furthest distance along its orbit from the Earth – where it travels more slowly.

Hence, the Moon moves more slowly through the Earth’s shadow.

And since the eclipse is almost-total, the Moon spends much longer time in the Earth’s inner shadow than it would in a more-partial eclipse.

Why the moon appears red during a lunar eclipse

The phenomenon is called Rayleigh scattering, and it is what makes the sky blue and sunsets red.

It also causes the Moon to turn red during a lunar eclipse.

Different colours of light have different wavelengths.

Since blue light has a shorter wavelength, it gets easily scattered in the Earth’s atmosphere than red light.

This is why the sky is mostly blue when the Sun is overhead.

But when it is setting, sunlight has to travel farther before reaching our eyes, passing through more of the atmosphere – during which the blue light scatters away, and red, orange, and yellow light pass through.

Since during a lunar eclipse, the only sunlight reaching the Moon passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, the blue light scatters away, making the moon appear red.

Best viewing of partial lunar eclipse at 4:03 AM EST

During a lunar eclipse, the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow.

While in a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow – the umbra – in the partial eclipse, up to about 99 per cent of the Moon’s disk will be within Earth’s umbra.

The best viewing times is around the peak of the eclipse on 19 November at 9:03 UTC/4:03 AM EST/1:03 AM PST.

The eclipse would be visible in all of North America, and parts of South America, Polynesia, eastern Australia, and northeastern Asia.

This would be the longest partial lunar eclipse since 18 February, 1440, spanning 3 hours, 28 minutes, 46 seconds.

It would remain the longest such eclipse for another 648 years until 8 February, 2669.

You can find more information on the eclipse and viewing times here.

According to some Christians, the Bible predicts that a series blood moons has already heralded the end of the world in 2014-15.

John Hagee, a Texas megachurch pastor in Texas, was among several evangelical leaders to assign eschatological significance to a sequence of four lunar eclipses within 18 months, known to astronomers as a tetrad, that all coincided with Jewish holidays.

Mr Hagee linked that event to passages in the Old Testament’s Book of Joel and the New Testament’s Book of Acts, which promise that “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood”.

“I believe that the heavens are God’s billboard; that he has been sending signals to Planet Earth but we just have not been picking them up,” said Mr Hagee in a sermon.

However, tetrads are not particularly rare, with eight scheduled to occur between 2015 and 2100. Nor is it unusual for lunar eclipses to fall on a Jewish festival, since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar and Passover is always a full moon.

According to Earth and Sky magazine, these two things have combined eight times since the start of the Gregorian calendar in 0 AD. The 20th century saw two tetrads falling on Jewish festivals, in 1949-50 and 1967-68.

Throughout history, humans have come up with stories to explain why blood moons happen, with many attributing malice to the event.

The Inca supposedly believed that a celestial jaguar was attacking and trying to eat the moon, so they would shake spears and make noise at it to drive it away. Or so at least claimed the Spanish colonists – not exactly an unjaundiced source.

In ancient Mesopotamia, the blood moon was thought to represent a cosmic attack on the king. Like a modern-day dictator using lookalikes to dodge assassination, they would put a surrogate king in place ahead of time while the real king pretended to be an ordinary citizen.

Others have a kinder view. One myth among the Batammaliba people of Togo and Benin says that lunar eclipses are a time of conflict between the sun and the moon, and that humans must encourage the pair to resolve their differences by settling our own disputes on Earth.

Another story told by the Luiseño tribe of Native Americans, from what is now California, is that the moon is sick and humans must sing chants and prayers to help it get well.

Here is the full schedule for the eclipse for key time zones where it will be visible, according to former Nasa astrophysicist and eclipse photographer Fred Espenak.

First will come the opening of the eclipse, during which the Earth’s shadow slowly falls over the moon. That will begin at:

• UK (UTC-0): 7.18am
• Eastern US (UTC-5): 2.18am
• US west coast (UTC-8): 11.18pm
• New Zealand (UTC+13): 8.18pm
• Eastern Australia (UTC+11): 6.18pm
• West Australia and China (UTC+8): 3:18pm

Then there will be a moment where the eclipse is at its fullest:

• UK: 9.02am to 9.03am
• Eastern US: 4.02am to 4.03am
• US west coast: 1.02am to 1.03am
• New Zealand: 10.02 pm to 10.03pm
• Eastern Australia: 8.02pm to 8.03pm
• West Australia and China: 5.02pm to 5.03pm

Finally the eclipse will wane and the shadow will pass, ending at:

• UK: 10.47am
• Eastern US: 5.47am
• US west coast: 2.47am
• New Zealand: 11.47pm
• Eastern Australia: 9.47pm
• West Australia and China: 6.47pm

An effect known as Rayleigh Scattering means the Moon will appear red during the lunar eclipse.

It’s all to do with the way the light as to pass through the Earth’s atmosphere before it reaches the Moon on the other side of the Sun, similar to the way the sky changes colour during the sunrise and sunset. It has earned November’s full moon the double moniker of Beaver and Blood.

You can read more about the phenomenon, with explanations from US space agency Nasa, right here:

For almost three and a half hours on 18 and 19 November, sky-watchers in North America, South America, East Asia and Australasia will see the moon turn red.

Feared and revered by ancient peoples across the world, this strange sight is the result of a partial lunar eclipse, in which the full moon passes out of the sun’s rays and into the shadow cast by the Earth.

It will be the longest such event since 1440, and there won’t be another as long until 2669. In New Zealand, it is the first one visible since 1212.

So what actually is a blood moon? And what makes it red? All your questions answered...

The lunar eclipse will be visible across large parts of the Earth, with those in North and South America best placed to view it.

This excellent eclipse map from TimeAndDate shows how it will pass from Western Europe and Africa, right across the Americas, before finishing up in East Asia and Australasia. As you can see, the UK is only just in the eclipse path, and it won’t be there for long before the Sun swallows it up.

Tonight’s lunar eclipse will actually begin early tomorrow morning, starting at 7.18am GMT on 19 November, and will last for more than six hours.

The actual peak of the eclipse, which starts at 9.02am, will last for 3 hours and 28 minutes.

With the sunrise in the UK taking place at 7,26am on Friday, the lunar eclipse will not be visible for long. In the US, however, it will be visible for its entirety, weather permitting.