Sept. 7 brings us a Full Moon. Some calendars and almanacs might
make reference to this Moon as the Harvest Full Moon, but they would
be incorrect. Although many might associate the September Full Moon
with the Harvest Moon, this is not always the case.

The first event, at 16:42 GMT is the Moon entering the penumbra, the
faint outer extremity of the Earth's shadow. But this shadow is so
light that the Moon doesn't begin to change appearance until the
Moon's diameter has penetrated it by at least 70 percent (17:40
GMT). Around that time, look for a very slight shading or smudginess
on the upper left portion of the Moon. As the minutes pass, the
penumbra becomes more obvious.

The next event to watch for is at 18:05 GMT, as the Moon enters the
umbra, the dark inner part of the Earth's shadow. This is the
beginning of the partial eclipse. The umbra is much darker than the
penumbra and fairly sharp-edged. The partial eclipse only lasts 1
hour 33 minutes. Maximum eclipse will come at 18:51 GMT. After
maximum eclipse, the Moon will soon exit the umbra at 19:38 GMT.
About 25 minutes later, the faint penumbral shading should gradually
fade away.

The next lunar eclipse will be a total eclipse on March 3 of next
year and will be visible from Europe, Africa and western Asia. That
event will also be visible from the eastern half of North America;
for many localities the eclipse will already be underway as the Moon
rises.

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit