LUNAR ECLIPSE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23387, 19 December 1945, Page 4

LUNAR ECLIPSE

Not Visible South Of Equator To-day there will be a total eclipse of the moon, but it will not be visible in New Zealand, as it will occur when the Northern Hemisphere will be facing the moon. It may be of some consolation to those who were looking forward to witness the eclipse that competent astronomers consider a lunar eclipse as a very ordinary affair. Two astronomers in Timaru, when the matter was referred to them by a representatative of “The Timaru Herald,” evinced little interest in the phenomenon. The eclipse will begin at 12.38 p.m. and end at 4.03 p.m. while the totality of the eclipse will last from 1.40 p.m. until 3.0 p.m. Because of the ever-narrowing cone Of the moon’s shadow, solar eclipses can be viewed only from that portion of the earth directly under the lunar shadow, whereas eclipses of the moon, owing to the much greater size and extent of the earth’s shadow, can be viewed from the entire hemisphere of the earth facing the moon. It can be shown that there must be at least two eclipses (partial or total) in any year. If there are only two they must be eclipses of the sun. There were two eclipses in 1933 and 1940. There cannot be more than seven eclipses in a year, of which there may be five of the sun and two of the moon, as in 1935, or four of the sun and three of the moon, as in 1917. Though eclipses of the sun are more frequent than eclipses of the moon, the latter are more commonly seen because they are visible from half the surface of the earth, whereas solar eclipses are visible from only a limited area.

A total solar eclipse is the most impressive and dramatic spectacle Nature has to offer, and right down the ages this rare phenomenon has never failed to excite interest and awe in the minds of the spectators.