As astronomer Tanya Hill notes, the Moon will not pass deep into the Earth’s shadow as it usually does, but skim close to the shadow’s edge.
The period of totality, when the moon is fully enclosed in the Earth’s umbral shadow, will last just five minutes or so. This makes it the shortest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century.
In fact, this eclipse has the shortest period of totality for almost 500 years. Back in 1529, on October 17, there was an eclipse where totality lasted for just 1 minute and 42 seconds.
The Conversation website has details on where best to view the eclipse.
Originally published by Cosmos as Get ready for the shortest lunar eclipse of the century
Bill Condie
Bill Condie is a science journalist based in Adelaide, Australia.
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