Colorful Lunar Eclipse

On Wednesday morning, Oct. 8^th, not long before sunrise, the bright full Moon over North America will turn a lovely shade of celestial red.  It's a lunar eclipse—visible from all parts of the USA. "It promises to be a stunning sight, even from the most light polluted cities," says NASA's longtime eclipse expert Fred Espenak. "I encourage everyone, especially families with curious children, to go out and enjoy the event."

However, red is not the only color.  Many observers of lunar eclipses also report seeing a band of turquoise. The source of the turquoise is ozone. Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado explains: "During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the moon passes through the stratosphere where it is reddened by scattering. However, light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer." This can be seen, he says, as a soft blue fringe around the red core of Earth's shadow.

From the east coast of North America, totality begins at 6:25 am EDT.  To catch the turquoise on Oct. 8th, he advises, "look during the first and last minutes of totality. The turquoise rim is best seen in binoculars or a small telescope."  The Moon will be high in the sky as totality slowly plays out between 3:25 am and 4:24 am PDT.

http://science.nasa.gov/s...