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Related Link: http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/ocm/startrak.htm
Related Link: http://astrowww.astro.indiana.edu/
There will be more star-gazers than lovers looking at the moon next Thursday (Sept. 26). The reason is that there will be a total eclipse of the harvest moon, according to Martin Burkhead, professor of astronomy at IUB.
Will the weather get between the viewers and the eclipse? Burkhead doesn't do weather forecasts, let alone long-range ones. One evening last week, the weatherman predicted a cloudy night, and he and his students had a perfect night for star gazing, he said.
It there any one place in Indiana that will be best for seeing the eclipse? Not according to the professor. "You just go outside, anywhere that is dark," Burkhead said, tongue in cheek.
The eclipse will have a rare bonus: the planet Saturn will be at its biggest and brightest and not since 1968 has the eclipsed moon been so close to another bright object.
The eclipse will begin at 8:12 p.m. CDT when the moon's leading edge enters the earth's shadow. The moon will reappear entirely from the earth's shadow by 11:36 p.m.