Welll… depending on which forecast you look at we just might get a peek at the nearly total lunar eclipse tomorrow night. Between 2:17am and 5:47am Friday morning the full Beaver Moon will slip through the southern regions of the Earth’s shadow. Mid-eclipse will occur at 4:03am when 98% of the moon will be in shadow and only a sliver of the moon’s southern limb will be in sunlight. This should be very pretty as the region of the moon in shadow usually appears a deep amber and the sliver of sunlit moon a pearly white, almost like a polar cap. It’s neat to realize what you are looking at is the shadow of the Earth’s south polar region… and nothing it holding it up! I almost got vertigo thinking about it the last time I saw the shadow of the Earth’s south pole on the moon. 🙂
For more information about the eclipse see (subtract 5 hours to convert UTC to EST)…
https://www.space.com/beaver-moon-lunar-eclipse-longest-of-century-phases
The forecast is looking fairly good for the eclipse. The evening may start cloudy but most forecasts show clearing after 2am. Mid-eclipse at 4am should be very pretty with the amber moon about 6 degrees to the south of the Pleiades. It might make a nice photo-op.
Stay warm!
Mother nature allowed me to document this eclipse near it’s maximum. She also brought in clouds around 4am and told me to go to bed! It was painfully cold. I am now focused on making my telescope/camera remote-controlled.
Even with the clouds it was very pretty, though cold! Setting up for remote observing/imaging is a really nice option to have.
Enjoy!