The Moon will turn red tomorrow as Britain experiences its last total lunar eclipse for 10 years. The eclipse will happen in the early morning of Monday January 21 when the Moon start to darken at 2.35am with full eclipse beginning at 4.40am. It will be free of the Earth’s shadow by 7.49am. It is the last chance for UK observers to see a total lunar eclipse in its entirety until 2029. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes exactly between the Sun and the Moon creating a shadow which stops solar rays reaching the lunar surface. Spectators can expect the Moon to begin to darken slowly before turning red as it becomes completely caught in Earth’s shade. Sometimes the eclipsed Moon is a deep red colour, almost disappearing from view, and sometimes it can be quite bright. Next weeks Super Blood Wolf Moon will be the last for a decade Credit: Chris J Ratcliffe January’s full Moon is also known as a ‘wolf moon’, a name deriving from Native American Tribes who said wolves would howl outside villages during full moons at the beginning of the year. And the eclipse will occur when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth – making it a supermoon, so it will appear 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter. In Britain the Moon will be above the horizon throughout the eclipse, though from the extreme southeast of England the Sun will have risen as it comes to an end. The red effect is due to Earth’s atmosphere. Without an atmosphere the Moon would appear black or even totally invisible when it was within Earth’s shadow. But because Earth’s atmosphere extends about 50 miles up, during a total eclipse, although the Moon is in shadow, there is a ring around our planet through which the Sun’s rays still pass. Unlike the other wavelengths the Sun's red light is scattered much less by air allowing it to travel through the atmosphere where other colours are lost. Finally it is bent by a process of refraction as it leaves the atmosphere on the opposite side, channelling it on to the Moon’s surface. Lunar eclipses always happen at a full Moon as this is when it moves behind the Earth and into line with the Earth and Sun but most of the time no eclipse takes place because the e Moon's orbit is slightly tilted so it normally passes a little above or below the Earth’s shadow.
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