Kern to see lunar eclipse tonight
Kern County residents who stay up late Thursday night will be in for a treat. A near-total lunar eclipse will cast the Earth’s shadow across the moon.
Reaching 97 percent totality, the eclipse is likely to bring about the rare phenomenon known as the “blood moon,” which occurs when dust particles in Earth’s atmosphere remove blue colors from the light.
“Because the Earth has an atmosphere, some of the sunlight is able to bend. We call it refraction,” said Nick Strobel, director of the William M. Thomas Planetarium at Bakersfield College. “It bends as it travels through the Earth’s air. It’s the redder colors that are scattered less than the bluer colors.”
Depending on the amount of dust in the air, the color of the moon will differ. More dust in the atmosphere will result in a brownish color, while a clearer atmosphere will display a light orange or red color.
“If you were on the moon, looking back toward the Earth, you would see the sun go behind the Earth, and then you would see this orange or red or brown ring beyond the Earth,” Strobel said. “If you’re in a darker place you can always see more stars. And during the eclipse, you’ll be able to see more of the surrounding stars that are close to the moon.”
In Kern County, the eclipse will begin at 11:18 p.m., continuing into the early hours of Friday morning, reaching its fullest point at 1:03 a.m.
Lunar eclipses occur when the sun and Earth align to cast a shadow on the moon. Normally, the moon’s orbit carries it above or below the shadow of the Earth, but when the stars align the fairly rare natural phenomenon occurs.
They are related to the more dramatic solar eclipse, which is when the sun and moon align to cast a shadow on the Earth. Solar eclipses are more rare due to the fact that the moon’s shadow is much smaller than the Earth’s.
But lunar eclipses still elicit wonder from those who are fascinated by the stars.
“What attracted me to astronomy, before I really came down this path, is how amazing the night sky is. It’s really wonderful to look out at Orion and know that there are cave paintings of that,” said Maggie McAdam, associate project scientist at NASA. “(A) phenomenon like the eclipse is similar. It’s just like something that’s beautiful and bigger than us. It just feels pretty cool to witness something like that.”
McAdam contributes to the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, a project based at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in which a telescope flown at 38,000 to 45,000 feet studies the solar system in ways not possible from telescopes based on the ground.
Recently, the project, known as SOFIA, detected water on the sunlit side of the moon, a discovery that challenges science’s understanding of how water persists in such harsh conditions.
But regardless of whether you’re an expert, the lunar eclipse will be plain to see. Visible from every point in the United States, the eclipse will be a shared event for all lovers of the starry sky
“It’s really easy,” McAdam said. “You don’t have to have any eye protection. You can go out and look at the moon and you’ll see it.”