On Friday‚ South Africans will get to see a penumbral lunar eclipse – which coincides with the northern hemisphere’s harvest moon.
A penumbral eclipse is not as spectacular as a total eclipse – because the earth’s main shadow doesn’t pass in front of the moon.
Instead the moon is covered by the Earth’s penumbra – the fainter edge of the planet’s shadow. This means it will be difficult to notice much of a difference.
Here is a time lapse video of a previous penumbral eclipse, from the Galeria do Meteorito to illustrate what skywatchers can expect to see.
According to timeanddate.com‚ if you are in Johannesburg the eclipse will start at 6.54pm‚ peak at 8.54‚ and then end at 10.53.
Space.com reports that if you want to see the eclipse your best bet will be to use a basic telescope‚ or a good pair of binoculars. If you want to get a picture‚ a standard DSLR camera should be fine.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 