It looks like the cooler weather is beginning to come South now that we are in the 11th month of the year. This blog post is concerned with an event that will be taking place on the night of November 7 into the morning of Election Day November 8. There will be a total eclipse of the moon that will be a Blood Moon. Since there are usually 2 lunar eclipses in a calendar year and not every one is a total eclipse and not every eclipse is visible from every point on the globe, this Election Day eclipse will be a rare one. It is a Total eclipse and will visible for almost its entire schedule in the Eastern time zone. Another Election Day eclipse of the moon won’t happen until Nov. 8, 2394. Wonder what those folks will be using for cameras?
Our eclipse will be happening from for almost 4 hours from approximately 3:02 am, with the partial eclipse beginning at 4.09 am, total eclipse beginning at 5:16 am and then maximum eclipse at 5:49 am. Although the moon doesn’t set until 6:52 am, blue hour begins around 5:30 am and the sun rises at 6:30 am, most anything after 5:49 am will probably be impossible to see. Also at 5:59 the moon is only 9.8 degrees above the horizon with atmospheric haze becoming a definite effect on visibility.
On November 2 I check the weather forecast and unfortunately it looks like cloudy and overcast, but that’s still 6+ days in the future.
However, if astrophotography is an interest of yours, check out the PhotoPills webpage. The app is available on both the iPhone App Store and Google play. PhotoPills has many videos and downloadable instructions for follow if you have never used it. And if you have those pages are very much worth a read.