Viewing
The eclipse was visible in the eastern evening sky on February 20 for all of North and South America, and on February 21 in the predawn western sky from most of Africa and Europe.
These simulated views of the earth from the center of the moon during the lunar eclipse show where the eclipse is visible on earth. |
The penumbral eclipse began at 00:35 UTC (February 21), and ended at 6:17. A partial eclipse existed from 1:43 until 3:00, followed by 51 minutes of totality (3:00 - 3:51), and then partial again from 3:51 until 5:09. (For local times, see Timing.)
It is possible to mistake the appearance of partial eclipse as the moon being in a different phase, but the shadow from the eclipse changes much more rapidly.
The bright star Regulus of Leo and the planet Saturn were prominent very near the moon during the total eclipse portion. Shortly before the eclipse began, Regulus was occulted by the moon in parts of the far Southern Atlantic ocean and Antarctica.
Read more about this topic: February 2008 Lunar Eclipse
Famous quotes containing the word viewing:
“Beguile the time, and feed your knowledge
With viewing of the town.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A lover is never a completely self-reliant person viewing the world through his own eyes, but a hostage to a certain delusion. He becomes a perjurer, all his thoughts and emotions being directed with reference, not to an accurate and just appraisal of the real world but rather to the safety and exaltation of his loved one, and the madness with which he pursues her, transmogrifying his attention, blinds him like a victim.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)