Before dawn on Monday, May 16, our satellite will turn red and this Blood Moon can be seen from all over Spain: the totality phase will begin at 05:29 and end at 06:54 (peninsular time).
It
's the first total eclipse we've seen in Spain since July 2018
, and there won't be another one until October 2023, so don't miss it.
early in the morning
The total lunar eclipse will take place in the early hours of Monday, May 16.
It will be visible from the Americas, Africa and Western Europe.
The phase of totality will be visible in its entirety from all over Spain.
The penumbral eclipse, when our satellite will enter the twilight zone created by our planet, will begin at 03:29 (peninsular time) and
the first contact with the shadow will take place at 04:25
.
The most interesting phase of the eclipse, that of totality, when the Moon is completely obscured, will begin at 05:29 and end at 06:54 (the maximum will take place at 06:11).
The last shadow contact will take place at 0711, but the Moon will set at 0702 (and the Sun will rise almost simultaneously), so the final phase of the eclipse will not be visible.
These hours, which we give here for Madrid,
vary slightly for different parts of Spain
.
The hours corresponding to all the provinces can be consulted on the website of the National Astronomical Observatory.
Visibility from Spain of the eclipse of May 16.RB
In the peninsular northeast and in the Balearic Islands, it will not be possible to see the entire phase of totality, since the Moon will set earlier.
But in the rest of the peninsula, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, the phase of totality will be seen in its entirety.
In a similar way to what will happen in Madrid, in these areas only the final phase of the eclipse will remain unseen, since the Moon will set as it leaves the Earth's shadow.
In the attached graph, the curves P1 (red) and P2 (blue) delimit the area of the world where the eclipse is completely visible (including the penumbra phases), to the right of the curve P2 (blue), the penumbra phase is not fully visible, to the right of O2 (blue) the shadow phase is not fully visible.
Between T2 (blue) and T1 (blue),
the eclipse is seen as the Moon goes to bed,
and the phase of totality is not fully visible.
To the right of P1 (blue) and to the left of P2 (red), no phase of the eclipse is visible.
Visibility of the eclipse of May 16.IMCCE/Obs.
from Paris
How to watch the eclipse
In order not to miss the most spectacular phase, that of totality, with the Moon dyed deep red, it is convenient to locate our satellite at around 05:00 in the morning, when it will already be descending in the west.
As the eclipse will take place at low elevations, as the Moon loses height, it is advisable to locate yourself in a place from which the western horizon can be seen without obstacles, that is,
without buildings or trees or any other elevated object that prevents our vision
.
In this way, from anywhere in Spain, we will have more than an hour to enjoy the Blood Moon (from 05:29 to 06:54, but from the northeast of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands we will see it go to bed a little earlier).
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During the eclipse, we can also take a look to the east-southeast as four planets will be visible at this time, from low to high elevation: Venus and Jupiter (the brightest), Mars and Saturn (the dimmest).
When the full moon is stained with the peculiar coppery tone, the contrast of the brightness of these planets with the background of the sky will be accentuated, which will facilitate their observation.
Observation of lunar eclipses can be done with the naked eye and, contrary to solar eclipses, they present absolutely no danger.
If you have
binoculars or a small telescope
, the show will be even more impressive: we will be able to appreciate the details of the lunar geography as the shadow moves on its surface.
Why are there so few eclipses?
Lunar eclipses always occur when the Moon is in the opposite direction to the Sun (visible all night) in the full moon phase, that is, when the Sun, Earth and Moon are perfectly aligned.
The orbit of the Moon and the Sun-Earth system.
One wonders why there isn't an eclipse every month.
The cause is that the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth is tilted five degrees relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Thus, due to the tilt of the Moon's orbit, and as eclipses require the almost perfect alignment of the three stars (Sun, Earth and Moon),
eclipses occur very rarely throughout the year
.
In practice, the annual number of eclipses ranges between four and seven, including those of the Sun and Moon.
In many cases, lunar eclipses are penumbral or partial.
Eclipses never happen alone.
About two weeks before or after each lunar eclipse there is always a solar eclipse.
That is, eclipses normally happen in pairs, and even in trios.
The lunar eclipse of May 16 has been preceded by a partial solar eclipse that took place on April 30 and was visible from the Pacific, part of the Antarctic coast and southern South America (it was not visible from Spain).
Where does the coppery light come from
The reddish-orange color of the eclipsed Moon comes from sunlight that is filtered and scattered by Earth's atmosphere around our planet's shadow.
In fact, that coppery light that bathes the eclipsed Moon is the light of all the sunsets and sunrises that occur simultaneously in the ring of the globe that separates day from night.
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When the atmosphere is very transparent,
eclipses are particularly bright and colorful
.
When the atmosphere contains large amounts of dust and aerosols from volcanic eruptions, eclipses are much darker.
Thus, the brightness of the totally eclipsed Moon can vary greatly from one eclipse to another, these changes are measured on the Danjon scale that varies from 0 (very dark eclipse) to 5 (least dark eclipse).
Rafael Bachiller
is director of the National Astronomical Observatory (IGN) and academic of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain.
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