TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MOON THIS EVENING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18182, 15 June 1927, Page 5

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MOON THIS EVENING.

A total eclipse of the moon will be visible to-night in New Zealand. The eclipse actually starts at 5.44 p.m. but the shadow is so light at that time that the change in the moon's surface will be hardly perceptible. At tVit time the moon enters the penumbra. At 6.13 p.m. the umbra or denser shadow will start to pass across the face of the moon and will be plainly visible. The total eclipse begins at 7.43 p.m., when for about twenty-two minutes the moon gets no light directly from the sun at all. At 10.45 p.m. the eclipse finishes. The most spectacular part will be from 7.43 on during the period of totality. Although it is not known by many people it is a fact that there are many more eclipses of the sun than of the moon. As the shadow cast by the moon on the earth’s surface is very small, solar eclipses are seen by few people. In every eighteen years there are about forty solar eclipses and thirty lunar while in some years there are no lunar eclipses at all and never are there more than three in the one year. By studying the moon’s eclipses scientists have been able to judge the size of various stars and gain knowledge of scientific importance.