MEXICO: Amateur astronomers and recreational stargazers across the nation will be hoping the weather gods are kind to them tonight, so that they can witness what will be the shortest total eclipse of the moon of the 21st century.
A lunar eclipse happens when the moon — slowly moving in its orbit around the Earth — goes into the Earth’s shadow.
Sometimes it goes through merely the outside, fainter part of the shadow (the penumbra), and we get only a partial eclipse. But if it goes right through the middle (the umbra), it will be a total lunar eclipse (with partial phases before and after totality).
For a typical lunar eclipse, totality — when the moon is completely immersed in the Earth’s shadow — can last for an hour or more. But for tonight’s eclipse it will be only about five minutes long (although some experts suggest it will last between seven and 12 minutes; for all sorts of reasons, it’s an inexact science).
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