Another rare eclipse may be visible on Monday night.
NASA officials are expecting a lunar eclipse to pass across American skies on March 25, ahead of next month’s total solar eclipse.
NASA expects next week’s lunar eclipse to be a penumbral lunar eclipse. In contrast to other types of lunar eclipses, which are more readily apparent, NASA advises that this one will be harder to spot.
“If you don’t know this one is happening, you might miss it. The moon travels through Earth’s penumbra, or the faint outer part of its shadow. The moon dims so slightly that it can be difficult to notice,” reads NASA’s website.
The difference in brightness should be noticeable by looking at the moon in the early evening and then looking again later, around midnight, and comparing the two images, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
Star gazers hower will have the opportunity to view a partial lunar eclipse later this year on September 18 and a total lunar eclipse next year on March 14.
A partial lunar eclipse results from an imperfect alignment of the sun, Earth, and moon. As a result, the moon passes through only part of Earth’s umbra, the inner part of Earth’s shadow. In a partial lunar eclipse, the Earth’s shadow does not entirely cover the moon.
A total lunar eclipse comes about when the moon moves into the Earth’s umbra, with some of the sunlight that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere dimly lighting the moon.
An annular solar eclipse eclipse, or “ring of fire” similar to last year, is also expected to take place later this year on October 2. This eclipse, however, will mainly take place over the Pacific Ocean and parts of South America, according to Earth Sky.
It is now less than three weeks before an exceedingly rare total solar eclipse darkens skies across North Texas. This will be the first time in over a century that the City of Dallas becomes a prime viewing location for one of these celestial events, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
