TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OF 2014 APRIL 15
--------------------------------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2014 March 3 initial
2014 April 6 current
Introduction
----------
New York City enjoys a total lunar eclipse on 2014 April 15 in owl
hours. The Moon stands next to Spica, a rare instance of a bright star
or planet adjacent to a lunar eclipse. Usually the eclipse has only
dim stars around it.
With the long duration of a lunar eclipse, about 3-1/2 hours, you
should arrange for comfortable seating and condiments. You do not have
to stay outdoors for the whole eclipse. Stepping out for the contact
moments and then every ten or so minutes is plenty.
No special instrument is needed, bare eye being perfectly
adequate. Many observers get their best views with binoculars rather
than a telescope. The low power of binoculars gives the eclipsed Moon
a setting among surrounding stars and enhances the illusion of a 3D
globe.
Timetable
-------
The timetable of events for the eclipse is presented here. Hours,
which may differ by a minute or two from other sources, are Eastern
Daylight Savings Time.
----------------------------------------------
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, 2014 APRIL 14-15, NEW YORK
-----------------------------------------------
EDST | events | alt-az | remarks
------+-----------------+----------------
19:10 | Moon rises | 00 102 | in daylight
19:34 | Sun sets | 01 102 | end of daytime
20:07 | civil dusk | 09 103 | end of daytime work
21:17 | nautical dusk | 20 123 | full night in New York City
00:00 | midnight | 38 165 | April 14 --> April 15
00:49 | Moon culminates | 39 180 | Moon max alt on meridian
01:42 | 1st paenubra | 37 196 | first paenumbra shade
02:02 | 1st contact | 36 202 | partial phase begins
03:10 | 2nd contact | 30 220 | total phase begins
03:49 | maximum eclipse | 25 228 | deepest coverage by umbra
04:20 | 3rd contact | 20 235 | total phase ends
05:10 | nautical dawn | 12 244 | end of full night
05:36 | 4th contact | 08 248 | partial phase ends
05:44 | civil dawn | 05 250 | start of daytime work
05:56 | last paenumbra | 04 252 | last paenumbra shade
06:17 | Sun rises | 01 255 | start of daytime
06:24 | Moon sets | 00 256 | in daylight
----------------------------------------
Contacts
------
The contacts listed in the timetable are the various tangencies of
the umbra with the lunar disc. Recall that the umbra is the very
shadow of Earth projected directly behind the Sun. It is not seen
be\cause normally there is nothing for it to fall onto. It blocks
sunlight from the Moon when the Moon passes thru it and causes the
lunar eclipse.
Surrounding the umbra is a less dark zone where sunlight is only
partly blocked by Earth. This ts the paenumbra. It shades from full
sunlight at its outer edge to quite deep darkness at its inner edge
against the umbra.
For a total lunar eclipse there are four contacts.
--------------------------------------------------
1st contact | 1st exterior tangency | partial phase begins
2nd contact | 1st interior tangency | total phase begins
3rd contact | 2ns interior tangency | total phase ends
4th contact | 2nd exterior tangency | partial phase ends
--------------------------------------------------------
In a partial eclipse we have only the 1st and 4th contacts because
there is no totality. The Moon always shows part of her lighted disc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1st contact | 1st exterior tangency | partial phase begins
4th contact | 2nd exterior tangency | partial phase ends
--------------------------------------------------------
The paenumbra gradually shades darker inward toward the umbra.
About 20 minutes before 1st contact, and for the same span after 4th
contact, there is usually a brownish tinging of the Moon at the
contact points. For 1st contact this warns of the coming of partial
phase. After 4th contact we get a last lingering shading of the Moon to
finish the viewing session.
The graduation of shading in the paenumbra differs among eclipses
and can not be reliably foretold. I always use a nominal 20-minute
limit, based on the many lunar eclipses I've observed since the 1960s.
For eclipses where the umbra misses the Moon and she passes only
thru the paenumbra we generally do not bother with viewing. We note
the geometric moment when the outer limb of the paenumbra does
exterior tangency with the lunar disc, as the 0th and 5th contacts,.
These moments have no visible indication on the Moon.
Magnitude
-----=-
One figure of merit for an eclipse is its magnitude. The greater
this number, the more total is the eclipse. A value less than 1.00
indicates a partial eclipse. A negative value points to a paenumbral
eclipse. The Moon misses te umbra and only the paenumbra lies over her
disc. Such magnitudes are rarely cited because paenumral eclipses are
generally neglected.
Sadly as it does happen, the explanation of this figure can be
loused up badly. The usual statement is that the magnitude of an
eclipse is the fraction of the lunar diameter overlapped by the
umbra. By this rule all total eclipses have magnitude 1.00 because the
entire diameter is obscured by the umbra. Yet total eclipses have
magnitudes greater than one.
An other description says that the magnitude is the ratio of umbra
to Moon diameter. This makes a fixed magnitude thruout the eclipse,
ignoring phase. Here's the proper way to calculate an eclipse
magnitude.
(ecl magn) = (Mrad + Urad - sep) / (2 * Mrad)
Mrad and Urad are the angular radius of the Moon and umbra. When
diameter is given, take one half of it. Sep is the angular separation
of Moon's and umbra's centers.
The magnitude of a lunar eclipse is the same for all observers.
The eclipse takes place on a plane face-on to the observer, where any
change in angular dimension is called equally for any remoteness of the
observer on Earth's surface.
The magnitude is virtually always stated for the moment of maximum
eclipse, when the separation of Moon and umbra is the least. As the
Moon moves thru the umbra the center-center separation varies to yield
a continuous gradation of the magnitude number.
The largest value of magnitude for a set of radii is a center-
over-center crossing of Moon thru umbra. The separation is zero and
the formula reduces to (Mrad + Urad) / (2 * Mrad). This gives the most
overrun of the umbra on the Moon.
It's possible to have zero and negative magnitude. A zero value
indicates a grazing partial eclipse. The Moon just kisses the Sun at
one exterior contact on the north or south lunar limb. A negative
value, which I hardly ever hear of, means the Moon misses the umbra
and does a normal Full Moon phase. There is no eclipse, except perhaps
an overlay of only the paenumbra.
The table here gives the various scenarios of eclipse magnitude
----------------
magn | scenarios
--------+----------
<0.00 + no eclipse, normal Full Moon
0.00 | graze partial eclipse
<<1.00 | partial eclipse, Moon excentric from umbra
<1.00 | deep partial eclipse
1.00 + graze total eclipse
>1.00 | normal total eclipse
----------------------------
A related figure is the obscuration of an eclipse. This is the
fractional area of the lunar disc covered by the umbra.This is common
for a solar eclipse but only occasionally cited for lunar ones, and
then only for partial eclipses.
It is sometimes found by squaring the magnitude but this is not
the way of computing it. You must go thru geometry of two overlapping
discs of different diameters, for umbra and Moon, based on the data
used for the magnitude.
Once the Moon is fully in the umbra, in a total eclipse, the value
of obscuration remains constant at 1.00. It decreases when the Moon
starts to quit the umbra exposing more of her disc.
New York sky
----------
The full spring sky is above us, centered on Virgo and the Moon.
Big Dipper is in high northwest, Scorpius is low in southeast, Lyra is
coming up in northeast. During totality the dimmer spring and early
summer stars come out. You may practice your star-ID skills on
Ophiuchus, Corona, Hercules, and other less lustrous constellations
and asterisms.
There are two planets near the Moon for this eclipse, tho not
really adjacent. Mars is 10 degrees west and Saturn is 26 degrees
east. Both are close to their oppositions and near their largest and
brightest phase. You may during totality take a look at them in the
dark sky to fill in the observing gap from large Moon.
The eclipse falls outside the scheduled periods for the 2014 GLOVE
at Night campaign. The GaN office does allow certain extra assessments
as part of observing other celestial events. There is a special
assessment during the Regulus occultation of 20 March 2014.
Definitely avail of the absence of Full Moon during totality to so
a GaN reading. With Orion well down in the west, you can use stars in
Leo. Regulus is magnitude 1. Algieba and Denebola are 2, Chort and
Zosma are 3, the rest of the Sickle is 4.If you see most of Cancer and
Lunx and Leo Minor, those stars are magnitude 5.
Weather and time
--------------
April is a spring month that can have lingering winter chill. It
can also bring rain. Have at ready a jacket or sweater. An other
consideration is moisture and dew. They can fog optics and knock out
electric and electronic devices. infiltrate into them.
The eclipse lasts several hours from 1st to 4th contact. Even in
mild and pleasant air you don't want to stay outdoors continuously to
watch the Moon. You may step indoors to warm up, consult charts or
maps, write notes, handle gadgets.Examining the Moon at intervals of
ten to fifteen minutes, plus around the moments of the contacts, is
quite sufficient to acquire a full experience.
A few passing clouds should not spoil the view. If they are moving
quickly they obscure the Moon for only a couple minutes. It can really
happen that scattered or shredded clouds add special beauty to the
eclipse! Moonlight dances off of them and they turn reddish during
totality.
April is deep within the period of daylight savings time. All
hours in this article are in EDST. It is now several years since the
start of EDST shifted from first Sunday of April to 2nd Sunday of
March.
Viewing location
--------------
The mechanics of a lunar eclipse do not factor in the location of
the observer. All observers, so long as the Moon is in their sky
during the hours of the eclipse, see the very same scene. For the
NYSkies region, all locations enjoy essentially the same
hours,,altitude, and azimuth of the Moon. With all figures in this
piece computed for Manhattan, they are valid as are for any place
within the NYSkies territory.
On the other hand, ou may want to attend a viewing session with
family, friends, other astronomers. There may likely be many public
viewings for this eclipse all over NYSkies. While it is not at all
necessary to be at a special location, the modestly late hour and long
duration of this eclipse encourage group viewing.
Check the April 2014 edition of NYC Events for public viewings
announced early enough to be entered into it. Check directly with your
local astronomy center for any last-minute news.
At a public session you may bring your own telescope or
binoculars, altho there will be plenty on site to look thru. You should
be familiar with your equipment to avoid needless fiddling and
fussing. Other telescopists will be pleased to help but you really
better understand how and why your gear works.
If you go to an open field or beach, where wind and chill can seep
over you, dress more for winter than for spring. What was adequate by
day may be too weak for the late night. Simple snacks and a bottle of
warm drink are also good to have with you.
Because activity on the Moon procedes slowly you may chat and
banter with other viewers without much worry about annoying them or
missing an important phase of the eclipse. Yes, you better still be
well-mannered with your company.
Like for any other late night activity be very mindful of road and
rail conditions in the midnight hours. Many travel corridors close for
repair in these hours, causing no end of travel disruptions. Drive or
ride around the closed sections or get to your target before they
close.
The same reasoning applies for the trip home. Getting trapped by a
road that closed during your stay at the viewing site is very unfunny.
Equipment
-------
Probably the very best views of a lunar eclipse are taken thru
binoculars, not a regular telescope. There is no need for high
magnification or amplification. Totable scopes of 75mm to 100mm
aperture are thoroly worthy to apply to this eclipse. This makes it
far more feasible to bring suitable gear to a viewing site by transit
or carpool.
With a conventional telescope, ue the low powers that enclose the
entire Moon in the eyepiece field, maybe with some sky around her.
Such a low power, to many astronomers, induces the impression that the
Moon is really a ball and not just a flat disc. This effect is an
illusion and it may fail for certain people.
Photography
---------
Taking pictures of the eclipse is like doing skyscape photography.
In totality or very near 2nd and 3rd contact, the same procedure is
used as for the starry background. With digital cameras, the exposure
is only a few seconds to record a firm image. This short shutter speed
suppresses star trails.
You may try a zoomed view or telephoto lens. The exposure may be
shorter to prevent the magnified star trails from spoiling the image.
In the early to late partial phase try letting the camera set
Itself for exposure. Switch to a center-spot meter pattern for the
internal light meter, if you can.
Many very simple cameras may lose sharp focus at high zoom during
the picture taking or later on the computer screen. Try some lunar
pictures on days before the eclipse to learn how deep a zoom your
camera can stand before the image falls apart.
It's tempting to do a time-lapse sequence, like for chemocameras.
This technique requires that the camera can do multiple exposures with
out, advancing the film'. Chemocameras did this by disengaging the
sprocket wheels so the film stays put while the shutter is cocked for
the next shot. Most digital cameras do not allow multiple exposures on
one image, but some high-end models do. Else, have fun superimposing
images in the computer's image processor.
Lunar caution
-----------
Please be extra careful when compiling timetables for the Moon. If
events span midnight, your ephemeris generator may fold over the time
sequence of lunar activity. Do a sanity check with a planetarium. As an
example the Moon rises on April 15th at 20:14 EDST. This is in the
night of the 15th, some 18 hours AFTER the eclipse!
The Moon rise you need is that on the 14th BEFORE the eclipse.
That's at 19:10.
The sanity check for this eclipse is that the Moon must rise a few
minutes BEFORE sunset because she didn't yet reach opposition for the
eclipse. The moonrise on the 15th puts the Moon way past opposition,
rising 40ish minutes AFTER sunset.
An other source of error is the shift of daylight and standard
time near midnight. You could take information for a full day earlier
or one later. Midnight of April 14-15 in daylight savings time is 23h
on April 14 in standard time.
Umbral darkness
------ ------
The overall darkness of the umbra ranges widely across eclipses.
It may be a bright cherry red to dense charcoal gray. The former limit
has a Moon that still outshines the planets and brightest stars. At
the latter limit the Moon quite vanishes from view to the eye and is
hard to recover in binoculars.
Some hint of the darkness can be foretold by volcanic activity on
Earth. Excess high-elevation dust expelled from volcanos may block
light from filtering thru the atmosphere. It doesn't reach tot he
Moon. Yet for the most part, we merely let the Moon surprise us.
Over the decades various methods were tried to assess the darkness
of the umbra. One was to see which of a set of lunar craters is
visible under a specified telescopic magnification.
An other was to opticly shrink the Moon to a point and then
compare it with stars seen by direct sight. One way to shrink the
Moon, at least to a small size, is to look at her thru the wrong end
of binoculars.
One relevant method was the Danjob scale, described from time to
time in astronomy media prior to major lunar eclipses. It assigns a
number to the umbra according as its color and texture.
No one method was generally accepted and the litterature on umbral
darkness is spotty.
Umbral size
---------
By the late 1600s, after many lunar eclipses were studied with the
newly developed telescope, we found that the umbral diameter is
consistently a bit larger than the geometricly calculated one. The
usual explanation since the early 20th century is that the sunlight
passing around the Earth on its way to the Moon is deflected a bit
outward to enlarge the shadow. But atmospheric optics should reduce
slightly the unbra's size.
The effect is sometimes assigned to human physiology in the vision
, yet it shows up in photographs. Continued efforts to measure the
size of the umbra are still needed.
The easiest way is to time when the umbra crosses various lunar
topographic landmarks. Because the umbra moves slowly and has a
diffuse edge, the timing can be taken to only a ten-second fineness at
best. This is quite enough to define the actual umbra against the
geometric one.
The Moon is full for a lunar eclipse so the craters and other
relief have no shadow. Pick in the stead bright and dark patches over
the disc. In many instances these coincide with craters, like Plato,
Grimaldi, Tycho, Proclus. Choose the smaller ones to better fix a
crossing point. When selecting features, refer to photographs of the
full Moon, not just a lunar map or composite picture. You could by
mistake pick a feature that under real full Moon conditions is
oblitterated for lack of light-&-shade.
Note the time, from a well-synchronized clock, when the umbra
first touches, is midway over, and completely over the feature. Same
process in reverse is done for the crater when it leaves the umbra.
By geometry or graphics you can work out the circle that best fits
your timings and compare its diameter to the calculated one for the
eclipse. It will almost always be a couple percent larger, the reason
and cause still being unknown.
Umbral texture
------------
The umbra is very unevenly shaded, making lighter and darker
patches over the lunar disc. It's hard to depict the umbra shading
because the lunar disc has its own light and dark patches in the maria
and terrae.
Digital cameras offer an amazing faculty to remove the Moon's own
irregular shadings and leave just those of the umbra. Take a picture
of the Moon a few minutes before first contact before the eclipse.
Then take pictures during the partial and total phases.
In the image processor do a 'subtract' of the fully lighted Moon
from the eclipses Moon. The resulting image has only the dark-light
pattern of the umbra. A sequence of these subtractions over the
eclipse span shows the movement of the Moon thru the umbra.
Lunar heat
--------
If you have CCD imagers, you could try measuring the sudden and
drastic drop of temperature on a lunar crater as the umbra covers and
uncovers it. A lot of interpretation of the measured brightness of the
crater is called for, depending on the properties and behavior of your
peculiar imaging system. Technical help from the system's manufacturer
may be needed, plus filters for certain wavebands.
If all goes well, you'll be astounded at the fall of heat in an
eclipse. Within minutes after the umbra crosses a crater, the
temperature drops from around +100C to -100C!! When the umbra clears
the crater the temperature rapidly climbs back to +100C.
During totality you may search for hotspots of internal lunar
heat, places where heat is emitted in spite of the lack of sunlight.
As I recall the findings are inconsistent over eclipses, which could
be due to erratic action of the hotspots.
Occultations
----------
There is a severe lack of detailed observations in the days
surrounding full Moon. The Moon smothers fainter stars from view. Look
up occultations occurring during the eclipse and try to time them. The
Moon doesn't have to be fully umbrated. As long as the area around the
contact point of the star is in umbra, you can get good timing.
The better lunar occultation trackers alert you to possible events
during a lunar eclipse, even if you set the the program to exclude full
Moon periods.
Occultation timings are still valuable in this day of precise --
to one meter resolution! -- tracking of the Moon by spaceprobes and
laser ranging. Home astronomy work continues to supplement and cross-
check that of the spacecraft.
Some occultation software don't recognize the dark lunar disc
during an eclipse. They may see only that the Moon is full and skip
over occultations deemed too difficult to observe against a bright
lunar disc. You may have to force the software to leave out the effect
of phase.
Mars & Saturn
---------
The monthly large Moon period discourages all levels of
stargazing, including that for planets. Saturn and Mars are near the
Moon for this eclipse and could reward you with better views than
outside the eclipse.
Saturn does nothing special on April 15th and requires no extra
attention. He looks the same as any other time in his current
apparition. If you're with friends or public do be sure to let them
inspect Saturn for a few minutes when the Moon is darkened.
Mars is only one week past his opposition, with a disc diameter of
15 arcseconds. He is still bright, tho noticeably less so than at
opposition. He from now on shrinks in both brilliance and size for the
rest of his apparition.
Mars events, like dust storms, darkening of certain surface
markings, and break out of clouds, can occur within a day or two. An
inspection of Mars in this lunar eclipse could reveal action that
would be missed under normal large Moon.
Do a normal Mars observation, with observing blanks, sketches and
photos during totality.
Variable stars
------------
Every month the large Moon interferes with monitoring variable
stars. In eclipse the Moon is faint enough to allow about as dark a
sky as possible for your observing location. This sky lets you inspect
k stars most affected by the Moon-gap.
Prepare for your work with all the needed charts, cut from the
AAVSO website. Lay them out in an itinerary around the Moon. know well
how to find the star's field quickly and confidently. Record the
assessed magnitude on standard log sheets.
Variable star times are cited in Julian Day Number. Be very
careful to properly account for your timezone and midnight crossing
when converting the calendar and clock to Julian Day Number.
Meteor showers
------------
This year's annual Lyrid and Virginid meteor showers are commonly
dismissed because they falls in the large Moon period. It could be
feasible to see activity from these showers during totality, possibly
capturing information about them that would be other wise lost.
Here is the specs for both showers from the INO table of active
radiants:
------------------------------------------------------
# RAd DEd Names & IMO code ZHR Sun Peak Activity span KPS
- --- --- ---------------- --- - -- -- ------------- ---
6 195 -4 Virginids (VIR) 5 4 Mar 24 Jan 25-Apr 15 30
7 271 34 Lyrids (LYR) 15 32 Apr 22 Apr 16-Apr 25 49
---------------------------------------------------------------
The RA is in degrees, not hours & minutes. 'ZHR' is Zenith hourly
Rate, the idealized number of meteors per hour falling during the peak
date. 'Sun' is the ecliptic longitude of the Sun at the peak date for
the shower. 'KPS' is the geocentric speed of the meteors in kilometers
per second.
The radiant for the Virginids is two degrees north of Mars. You're
looking in its direction while observing the eclipse. The Lyrid
radiant is about 10 degree west-southwest of Vega, or about above Vega
during the eclipse.
The Lyrids are a regular shower with at least some fall of meteors
each year. The Virginids are a weak stream with occasional years of
little or no activity.
Comets & aurorae
---------------
If there be a nighttime comet, it'll show up better during the
eclipse. I recall several instances when a comet could have been
visible but for the large Moon in the sky. By the time the Moon moves
along and shrinks in phase, the comet is fading away.
By spring 2014 solar activity may stay moderate or weak. There
likely is little chance of catching an aurora during totality. Look
around anyway! Scan around the northern quadrant for suspicious glows
and patches, those not normal for you site. Then look again a couple
minutes later because auroral features shift aspect quickly.
If by chance there is a lunar halo, the colors fade away to leave
mostly red. Same for parselenia.
Lunar meteors
-----------
This is a very long shot experiment. There is already a home
astronomy program to look for the flash of a meteor colliding with the
Moon. The observing is done on the dark side of the lunar disc during
the regular cycle of phases. Meteor hunting quits when the Moon gets
near full because there is then too little dark surface to monitor.
This leaves each month a hole in the records for captured crashes of
meteors and biases statistics about them.
A lunar eclipse offers the chance to collect meteor crashes when
otherwise they are utterly nonobservable. The search is done on the
part of the Moon within the umbra. A given spot on the Moon can be
watched for the whole span of totality at that spot, which will in
general be different from the overall totality duration.
If you are planning videography for the Regulus occultation of
2014 March 20,use that gear for this eclipse. Your rig must record
stars of 6th to 8th magnitude, the typical brightness of a meteor
flash on the dark side of the Moon.
Hook up the video device to a telescope to show the whole or major
portion of the lunar disc in the field. A meteor can hit any where, so
a wider area of lunar surface has a better chance of getting a strike.
Videograph within the umbra, keeping the lighted part of the disc
out of the camera field. Start and stop the shoot at known moments,
within a few seconds by a synchronized clock.
Examine the movie in slow motion to see if you got any meteor
flashes. Overwhelmingly the odds are that you didn't. Yet, in spite of
the long odds, home astronomers persevere and they did catch many
meteor strikes. NASA has an office at the Marshall Space Flight Center
to collect and coordinate such observations.
The time of the collision is taken from the frame rate and count
of frames from the start moment of your video shoot. Depending on the
capacity of your camera's memory you may have to do several runs each
on a fresh memory device.
It is not really feasible to watch by eye at the telescope. The
stress is much too great and you can very easily miss a flash, that
lasts only a second or two. You do need the videography rig.
Nature studies
------------
If you view from a place with interests in wildlife, you may try
to monitor the actions of small animal s and insects during the
eclipse. I don't know what to expect but I suppose that ants use the
Moon to guide them at night. When the Moon is covered up how do the
ants react? Do birds come to ground and wait out the eclipse? Do
burrowing animals come out, thinking it's dark enough for safety? So
crickets change their chirping?
Eclipse frequency
---------------
Most readers recall seeing a total lunar eclipse from a given
fixed location. Few can say they saw from that same location a total
solar eclipse. If they saw one at all, they almost for sure traveled
to the central path, which could be halfway around the world.
The geometry of eclipses forces at least two solar eclipses each
year and can miss any lunar eclipses. Solar eclipses occur more
frequently on the global scale than lunar eclipses. To be far, many of
the solar eclipses are only partial ones near the Earth's poles
The reason for the familiarity with lunar eclipses is that the
eclipse lasts a long time and is visible from any where the Moon is
over. This is a bit more than 1/2 of the world, an area that has a
good chance to enclose your location.
A total solar (including annular) eclipse is seen only from a
narrow band across the world at best about 200 kilometers wide. Unless
tore in this belt you miss the total phase. It works out that for a
given location the chances of a total solar eclipse occurring is once
in about 200 years. This is a global average.
It also turns out that partial solar eclipses seen from a given
place are almost as common as lunar eclipses. Most readers miss them
because they require solar filters or other safe observing mean.
Without these they skip the event as being a curious news item.
This was the situation in New York for the partial solar eclipse
on 2013 November 3. There was no mass witness for it among the people.
Only astronomers tried for a look and they were clouded out. A similar
nonevent may be the partial solar eclipse of 2014 October 23. It
begins ten minutes before sunset in the City.
Eclipse with star
---------------
A lunar eclipse next to a bright star or planet is rare. For this
eclipse the adjacent star is Spica, about 1 degree south of the Moon.
The last time Spica sat next to the eclipsed Moon was on 1968 April
13-14. I watched that eclipse!!
The previous lunar eclipse against a planet was with Saturn on
1996 September 26. That one I also watched.
For the record the bright stars that could sit next to the
eclipsed Moon, with the approximate dates, are:
-------------------------------------------------
star or group | date | displacement from Moon
----------------+--------+-----------------------
Hydaes-Pleiades | Nov 24 | Moon 1/2 between the two
Elnath | Nov 13 | 5 degree north
Pollux | Jan 14 | 7 degree north
Beehive cluster | Jan 30 | 2 degree north
Regulus | Feb 22 | 1 degree north
Porrima | Apr 3 | 3 degree north
Spica | Apr 17 | 2 degree south
Zubenelgenubi | May 7 | 1 degree north
Graffias | May 25 | 1 degree north
Lagoon cluster | Jun 21 | thru M8, M20, M21
Sagittarius cl | Jun 29 | 1 degree south
Caput Capri'i | Jul 23 | 6 de N to alp-bet Cap
Pisces Circlet | Sep 14 | 6 degree north
---------------------------------
The Circlet is a dim asterism but is a distinctive crude circle of
stars in the Western Fish of Pisces. In addition to passing just south
of Graffias the eclipsed Moon can occult omega 1 & 2 Scorpii.
Eclipse cycles
------------
Lunar eclipses follow the same cycles as solar eclipses and
occultations. Given the date of one eclipse or occultation, there is
an other on the same date 19 years away. At first this rule seems to
fail for the April 14th date of the instant eclipse. It is not an
integral number of 19-year intervals after the 1968 eclipse.
2014 and 1968 are separated by 2.368 19-year steps. The apparent
breakdown is caused by 2014 being only the second instance of the
current round of the Rule-oh-19. The previous eclipse in this round
was on 1995 April 14. The one before that would be on 1974 but there
ws none then. The current round started with the 1975 eclipse.
The 1968 eclipse on April 14 is the LAST one of its own round of
the Rule. The others in that round in the 20th century are in 1949,
1930, 1911.
By the way, the 1995 eclipse, occurring also next to Spica, missed
New York. It took place in local daytime below the horizon. It also
was a partial eclipse with only a slice of the north side of the Moon
covered by the umbra.
The 2014 eclipse is the next in the exeligmos of 54 years, 31
days, following that of 1960 March 13. The next one is 2068 May 17.
The wander of dates comes from the leapday chatter and the omission
here of fractional days.
Conclusion
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Eclipses, of the sun or moon, are wonderful events to witness and
record. When the hour is convenient, they are stunning public
spectacles. They are excellent sources for astronomy, maths, geometry
lessons and demonstrations.
Every eclipse is unique in aspect, ambiance, circumstance. The
juxtaposition in 2014 of Spica under the Moon makes for an extra
pretty scene! With the typical cool April night with trees and flowers
starting to bloom should make for an extremely pleasant night under
the stars.
No eclipse should never be skipped for trite cause. Deliberately
prepare to observe it! Many will be clouded out, like any other
celestial event. Recall that most of the New York region lost the 2012
Venus transit to clouds. That's the incurably handicap of skywatching