Saturn to Reach Opposition Aug. 14

Saturn will have one of its best viewing opportunities of the year in the period surrounding Sunday, Aug. 14. Or it would, if the nearly Full Moon doesn’t spoil our fun.

On that date, Saturn will reach opposition – the point where it lies directly opposite the Sun in our night sky – around midnight local time for most stargazers, with the constellation Capricornus behind it.

Saturn will be visible for much of the night, rising above the southeastern horizon and lingering high in the southern sky. This will occur during Saturn’s perigee – its closest approach to Earth – making it even larger and brighter than usual.

An illustration of NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, where it documented the ringed planet in 2017.
An illustration of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, where it documented the ringed planet in 2017. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

But as previously noted the last blog, the Moon will become full Aug. 11-12, and its bright wash of light will challenge spotters to clearly make out much around it in the night sky. Hopefully, Saturn’s position – west of the rising Moon – won’t cause it to be directly impacted.

The best thing about opposition this year is that Saturn will be visible all night long, said Caleb Fassett, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “That gives stargazers a good, long chance to find and observe it,” he said.

And despite the light-clutter from the Moon, all may not be lost. The rings of Saturn will face Earth at a 13-degree angle to our line of sight. And though Saturn is much farther from the Sun than our planet – an average 886 million miles out, compared to 94.4 million for Earth – a unique phenomenon may lend it even greater brightness during opposition.

The Seeliger effect, named for German astronomer Hugo von Seeliger, who died in 1924, identifies a dramatic brightening of a distant body or particle field when illuminated from directly behind the observer. With Earth passing between Saturn and the Sun, the sixth planet’s icy rings are likely to brighten perceptibly in the hours around opposition. 

Even so, it will still require a telescope to spot Saturn – which takes 29.4 Earth years to complete a single solar orbit – as anything more than a bright point of light.

Fassett recommends a 4-inch to 8-inch telescope to fully resolve the rings and provide a good look at the planet itself during opposition. With a decent telescope, it may even be possible to catch a glimpse of Titan and other Saturnian moons.

“It’s always pretty cool to see the distant planets, and Saturn is wild,” Fassett said. “Its rings and other unique characteristics make it a great subject of study for amateur astronomers and young space enthusiasts, and its moons are of great scientific interest.”

Among them is Titan, largest of Saturn’s moons, and the destination for NASA’s planned Dragonfly mission. Set to launch in 2027, Dragonfly will deliver an 8-bladed rotorcraft to the icy surface of Titan in the mid-2030s. There, it will examine the atmosphere and take samples of the surface, advancing our search for the building blocks of life and characterization of Titan’s habitability.

Learn more about Saturn here.

by Rick Smith

Meet IXPE Scientist Abel Lawrence Peirson

Artificial intelligence (AI) has led Abel Lawrence Peirson to all kinds of interesting places. He’s used AI techniques to examine brain activity in flies and other neuroscience applications. With the help of AI, he’s even trained a neural network to create internet memes, displaying phrases on images in a way that looks like a human made them to be funny — at least some of the time.

Abel Lawrence Peirson
Credit: Abel Lawrence Peirson

Now, Peirson, a doctoral student at Stanford University, is using his AI skills to help solve some the universe’s mysteries through NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission. It’s a spacecraft that looks at the polarization of X-rays from extreme objects like supernova remnants, neutron stars, and black holes. Polarization describes how the X-ray light is oriented as it travels through space, offering clues to the physics going on in these extreme objects.

To help scientists analyze and interpret IXPE data, Peirson applies a technique called “supervised machine learning.” That means he trains computer models to reconstruct previous events – in this case, the polarization that led to the patterns of X-ray light detection that IXPE sees. It’s kind of like if you see a dented car next to a pole and could reconstruct exactly how fast, and at what angle, the car hit the pole. “We take a really good simulator of the telescope, and then teach the model to reverse” to figure out what kind of polarization leads to IXPE’s detection’s, Peirson explains.

One of the objects he’s interested in is called a “blazar.” A blazar is a special case of an “active galactic nucleus,” composed of a central supermassive black hole that’s actively feeding off material from a surrounding disk, making it appear very bright in the sky. Jets of high-energy particles spew out, and when the jets are oriented towards us, that makes the object a blazar.

A big mystery about these blazars is whether protons, which are some of the subatomic particles that make up the stuff of the world as we know it, contribute significantly to the energy emission from these jets. Protons are examples of “hadrons,” a type of particle that is made of two or more smaller particles called quarks (you may have heard of the Large Hadron Collider, for example). Hadrons may be colliding with particles of light, called photons, and those clashes would produce particles and light in the jets. “So, if we could measure the polarization, this is a really good probe as to whether there are hadronic processes happening,” Peirson said.

Before he got to work on a space mission, Peirson thought that being a professional scientist would mean more doing math and building computer models. While those skills are important, software programming has turned out to be a huge part of his work. “In the end, if you want to be really impactful nowadays, I think that is sort of reality,” he said. “You need to build usable tools or things that people can build on, and that is, like 99% of the time, software.”

One of the biggest challenges of his work is coordinating with a big collaboration. With lots of team members in multiple countries working on IXPE, Peirson quickly realized that science on this mission is not a solitary endeavor. “You’re part of a team and you need to work within the confines of that team,” he said. “Overall, I’m very happy with how it’s turned out.”’

Peirson is multinational — he grew up in London, but his dad is American, and his mom is Spanish. As a child he loved watching Star Trek and reading Isaac Asimov’s novels, both of which sparked his imagination about space and what might be beyond Earth. After earning his undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Oxford, he pursued a Ph.D. at Stanford in Palo Alto, California, where he’s currently finishing up his dissertation.

His advice to future astrophysicists? Learn statistics and programming as soon as you can. “You’re getting data from the sky, in very weird forms that are very unique and difficult to understand, and then trying use models to understand them,” he said. “And that is essentially data science.”

Loud fireball spotted over southern Mississippi mostly heard, hardly seen

A fiery meteor streaked across the morning skies in southern Mississippi yesterday on April 27, 2022.

More than 30 eyewitnesses in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi reported seeing a bright fireball at 8:03 a.m. CDT. The sighting was soon followed by numerous reports of loud booms heard in Claiborne County, Mississippi, and surrounding counties.

GLM image from the GOES 16 satellite.
GLM image from the GOES 16 satellite. Credits: NOAA

Approximately 22,000 miles out in space, NOAA’s Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLM) onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 16 and 17 detected several bright flashes associated with the fragmentation’s of this bolide, or exceptionally bright meteor, which was first spotted 54 miles above the Mississippi River near the Mississippi town of Alcorn.

“This is one of the nicer events I have seen in the GLM data,” said Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Fireball ground track from eyewitness accounts.
Fireball ground track from eyewitness accounts. Credits: NASA/American Meteor Society

The object – thought to be a piece of an asteroid about a foot in diameter with a weight of 90 pounds – moved southwest at a speed of 55,000 miles per hour, breaking into pieces as it descended deeper into Earth’s atmosphere. It disintegrated about 34 miles above the swampy area north of Minorca in Louisiana.

The fragmentation of this fireball generated an energy equivalent of 3 tons of TNT (trinitrotoluene), which created shock waves that propagated to the ground, producing the booms and vibrations felt by people in the area.

At its peak, the fireball was over 10 times brighter than the Full Moon.

“What struck me as unusual was how few eyewitness reports we had given the skies were so clear,” said Cooke. “More people heard it than saw it.”

by Lance D. Davis

NASA Celebrates Earth Day: How NASA Benefits Our Home

No matter where you are located on this globe, we all have one thing in common – we all call planet Earth our home!

Earth provides humanity with everything we need to survive.  Earth Day is a time to acknowledge what we can do to help our planet. With more than a billion people participating every year, Earth Day is the largest secular observation in the world.  Let’s look at three ways NASA is impacting the Earth.

1.) Global Ecosystems Dynamic Investigation (GEDI): GEDI provides a unique 3D view of Earth’s forests, helping to fill in missing information about their role in the carbon cycle. The primary purpose of GEDI is to produce high-resolution laser-ranging observations of Earth in order to characterize the effects of climate change and land use on ecosystems’ structure and dynamics. GEDI beams down laser pulses into tree canopies to reveal more about our environment and how it is changing.

Figure 1: GEDI’s view of a forest appears as a collection of waveforms that show the treetops, the ground, and the branches, leaves, and open space in between. Put together, collections of waveforms begin to show the forest’s structure — not only vertically, but horizontally as well. This shot of the Amazon rainforest shows the canopy height and the structure underneath. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin

2.) ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS): ECOSTRESS monitors the loss of water through tiny pores in the leaves of living plants. The experiment measures combined evaporation and transpiration, known as evapotranspiration. The study uses high-resolution thermal infrared radiometer, which works like a giant thermometer from space, to measure the temperature of plants and the amount of heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

This temperature map shows the stressed and dry vegetation surrounding the Apple fire in Southern California on Aug. 1, 2020. The observation was made possible by NASA’s Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) which measured the temperature of the burn area and tracked the dark smoke plume drifting east from California to Arizona. Credits: NASA

3.) Ocean’s Melting Greenland (OMG): The OMG mission is paving the way for improved estimates of sea-level rise by addressing the question: to what extent are the oceans melting Greenland’s ice from below? The OMG campaign examined the temperatures and other properties of North Atlantic waters along the coast, while also taking measurements of the glaciers that reach the ocean. The study examines why the Tracy and Heilprin glaciers, which flow side by side, are melting at different rates. The study documents a plume of warm water flowing up Tracy’s underwater face and a much colder plume in front of Heilprin.

Left: Greenland topography  color-coded from 4,900 feet (1,500 meters) below sea level (dark blue) to 4,900 feet above (brown). Right: Regions below sea level connected to the ocean; darker colors are deeper. The thin white line shows the current extent of the ice sheet.
Credit: UCI.

Earth Day is an opportunity for everyone from around the globe to come together. As a NASA intern, you set the example for other students around the globe. This Earth Day let’s make an impact. Tag us @NASAINTERNS and show us how you are making a difference this Earth Day!

Written by: Waryn Flavell

Mars-Saturn, Jupiter-Venus Conjunctions Happening This Month!

Skywatchers, you have the opportunity to see not just one, but two planetary conjunctions during the month of April 2022!

A conjunction is a celestial event in which two planets, a planet and the Moon, or a planet and a star appear close together in Earth’s night sky. Conjunctions have no profound astronomical significance, but they are nice to view. In our Solar System, conjunctions occur frequently between planets because the planets orbit around the Sun in approximately the same plane –  the ecliptic plane – and thus trace similar paths across our sky.

The first planetary meet up occurs on the mornings of April 4 and 5 before sunrise and includes Mars and Saturn, with Saturn being the brightest. These two planets will come together, appearing as almost a single point of light. However, if you grab your binoculars, you’ll easily see the scene with the planets switching positions on each morning.

An illustration of the Mars-Saturn conjunction looking east in Huntsville, Alabama, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 4, 2022.
An illustration of the Mars-Saturn conjunction looking east in Huntsville, Alabama, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 4, 2022. Credit: NASA/Marshall

We will also see a bright Jupiter ascend quickly in the morning twilight, heading towards Venus in the final week of April. Catch a great view of the planets on the morning of April 27, which will include a waxing Moon.

Jupiter and Venus will then meet in conjunction during the morning of April 30 – appearing to nearly collide into each other. Due to the glare from both planets, observers will see them merge into one very bright, spectacular glow!

An illustration of the Jupiter-Venus conjunction looking east in Huntsville, Alabama, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 30, 2022.
An illustration of the Jupiter-Venus conjunction looking east in Huntsville, Alabama, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 30, 2022. Credit: NASA/Marshall

Venus’s orbit is closer to the Sun than the Earth’s, and Jupiter’s orbit is much farther away, so the proximity is an illusion, occurring only because Earth, Venus, and Jupiter happen to be approximately aligned. This celestial event will continue on the morning of May 1, but the positions of the planets, Jupiter and Venus, will be reversed.

If you want to know what else is in the sky for April, check out the latest “What’s Up” video from Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

Enjoy all this month has to offer as you watch the skies!

by Lance D. Davis

IXPE Checks Out X-rays from Extreme Objects

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, has returned data that no other spacecraft has obtained before from a few extreme cosmic objects.

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)
NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)

Launched in December 2021, IXPE has detected polarized X-rays from three of its first six targets. Polarized X-rays carry unique details about where the light comes from and what it passes through. By combining these details with measurements of X-rays’ energy and how they change over time, we get a fuller picture of an object and how it works.

Prior to IXPE, the only cosmic object with polarized X-ray measurements was the Crab Nebula, the wreckage of a massive, exploded star whose light swept past Earth nearly 1,000 years ago. In these new observations, IXPE has confirmed the previous Crab Nebula measurements and detected X-ray polarization from a neutron star and a magnetar. A magnetar is a highly magnetic neutron star, a dense object left in the wake of a stellar explosion.

Scientists are now analyzing these preliminary data to better understand what they mean and how they fit in with other observations of these objects.

“Now in its third month of science operations, IXPE is performing as anticipated and is measuring the X-ray polarization of cosmic sources in the high-energy universe,” said Steve O’Dell, IXPE’s project scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “We are excited to see these new results, about a half-century after the pioneering work of IXPE’s principal investigator Martin Weisskopf and look forward to using this new tool to understand better the workings of neutron stars, black holes, and more.”

Weisskopf was part of a team from Columbia University that first detected polarized X-rays from the Crab Nebula in 1971 using a sounding rocket experiment. About five years later, in 1976 and 1977, the Columbia team used NASA’s eighth Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO-8) to confirm that X-rays from the Crab Nebula are polarized by a degree of almost 20 percent. IXPE measures the polarization of X-rays with higher precision, but its preliminary results agree with observations from OSO-8 and more recent measurements taken by a small satellite called PolarLight.

Composite image of the Crab Nebula
Composite image of the Crab Nebula with X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and white), optical light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (purple), and infrared light from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (pink).
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA-JPL-Caltech

Another object IXPE has looked at recently is the magnetar 4U 0142+61 in the constellation Cassiopeia. The third object that IXPE detected polarized X-rays is the binary accreting neutron star system Hercules X-1, which consists of a low-mass star and a neutron star that is pulling material off it.

The other targets for IXPE’s first science observations were the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A and the active galaxy Centaurus A, as well as the Sagittarius A Complex at the center of the Milky Way, a region that includes the black hole Sagittarius A*. Preliminary analyses have not detected X-ray polarization from these objects so far, but more detailed analyses are underway.

IXPE’s first datasets are now publicly available through NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

March Equinox Welcomes ‘Astronomical’ Spring

by Lance D. Davis

Did you know our planet has two types of seasons? They are meteorological and astronomical. What’s the difference?

“Meteorological seasons” follow the changing of the calendar, month to month, and are based on the annual temperature cycle – seasonal temperature variations modified by fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation received by Earth’s surface over the course of a year. For instance, the meteorological season of spring begins each year on March 1 and will end on May 31.

However, “astronomical” seasons happen because of the tilt of Earth’s axis (with respect to the Sun-Earth plane), and our planet’s position during its orbit around the Sun.

An illustration of the March (spring) and September (fall or autumn) equinoxes. During the equinoxes, both hemispheres receive nearly equal amounts of daylight. (Image not to scale) Credits: NASA/GSFC/Genna Duberstein

The March equinox – also called the vernal equinox – is the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. Seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere where it will be autumn, also known as fall. These simultaneous seasons will occur March 20, 2022, at 15:33 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) or 10:33 a.m. CDT (Central Daylight Time).

Equinox Solstice Info Graphic
Click to view larger. Credit: NASA/Space Place

The Sun will pass directly above the equator, bringing nearly equal amounts of day and night on all parts of Earth. At the equator, an equinox results in about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.

Equinoxes and solstices are caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and the ceaseless motion it has while orbiting the Sun. Think of them like events happening as our planet make its journey around the Sun.

North of the equator, the March equinox will also bring us earlier sunrises, later sunsets, softer winds, and budding plants. With the reversed season, those south of the equator will experience later sunrises, earlier sunsets, chillier winds, and dry, falling leaves.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, watch the Sun as it sets just a bit farther north on the horizon each evening until the June solstice – when the Sun reverses directions, moving back to the south. Also, get outside to enjoy the warmer weather and extended daylight!

Happy March equinox, Earthlings!

SLS Booster Fired up to Test Improved Design for Future Artemis Missions

A team of NASA and Northrop Grumman engineers fired a 2-foot-diameter, subscale solid rocket booster on Dec. 2, 2021, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This test, conducted in Marshall’s East Test Area, was the second of three tests supporting the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program, which will have an upgraded design to power the evolved configuration of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on flights after Artemis VIII.

24-inch diameter subscale solid rocket test
NASA engineers successfully completed a 24-inch diameter subscale solid rocket test on Dec. 2, 2021, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in the East Test Area. The sub-scale motor produced 76,400 pounds of thrust during the hot fire test. This test was the first of two tests supporting the Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) development effort that includes a new motor design for upcoming Artemis missions after Artemis VIII. This 334-inch motor was the longest subscale motor tested to date.

The BOLE booster will be a larger and more powerful solid rocket motor than the current SLS solid rocket booster. The boosters for the first eight flights of the Artemis program repurpose the steel booster cases and parts from the Space Shuttle Program with an upgraded design. The BOLE booster will implement a composite case design, replace obsolete parts with newer components, and improve the booster’s design and performance.

This test focused on the booster motors, which provide the majority of the power to launch SLS. Unlike previous subscale motor tests, this marked the first time the team could evaluate insulation and nozzle on one motor rather than two configurations, one for the nozzle and one for the insulation. During this subscale test, the motor produced 76,400 pounds of thrust.

The original test design had two segments, each 9 feet long. To get a more characteristic thrust profile, a 4.5-foot-long segment was added to the test article, totaling nearly 28 feet and making this the longest subscale motor tested to date. In addition to the added half segment, a new propellant, aft dome design, and nozzle design are included in the BOLE motor development program that will become part of the Block 2 evolved rocket.

During the test, three different internal case insulation formulations were evaluated in the aft dome. The performance results of these materials will aid in selecting a final formulation for the first full-scale test fire of the BOLE booster. As the team completes the final design for the full-scale motor, this test is an important step in learning how materials will perform at the higher pressure and performance expected for the BOLE motor as compared to current motors.

The third test of the subscale motor is currently scheduled for spring 2022 at Marshall, followed by the first full-scale BOLE motor test, tentatively scheduled for spring 2024 at Northrop Grumman’s test facility in Utah. Northrop Grumman, lead contractor for the booster, helped conduct the Marshall test and will be assisting with data evaluation.

Experience NASA’s Journey to LCRD Launch

LAUNCH UPDATE:  NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) is now scheduled to lift off Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 3:04 a.m. CST (4:04 a.m. EST) aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. Get more details here.


Have you ever witnessed one of NASA’s launches? It’s definitely a sight to see when a rocket takes to the sky, soaring beyond our atmosphere into space.

If you haven’t, you’ll have another chance soon with the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), which will continue NASA’s exploration of laser communications to support future missions to the Moon and throughout our solar system.

Illustration of NASA’s Laser Communication Relay Demonstration
Illustration of NASA’s Laser Communication Relay Demonstration communicating over laser links.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

LCRD is scheduled to launch Dec. 5 aboard an Atlas V551 rocket from Cape Canveral Space Force Station in Florida with a two-hour launch window that opens at 3:04 a.m. CST (4:04 a.m. EST).

Live coverage of the launch begins on NASA Live at 2:30 a.m. CST (3:30 a.m. EST), with countdown commentary on NASA Television, the NASA app, and NASA social media.

Register as an LCRD virtual guest to experience NASA’s journey to the LCRD launch. Along with participating online in the launch, you’ll also gain access to curated launch resources, mission information, interaction opportunities, and schedule updates. Following launch, virtual guests will receive a stamp for their virtual guest passport!

Like technology demonstrations that have come before it, LCRD is a giant step towards making operational laser, or optical, communications a reality.

But just how much data can NASA transmit at once with laser communications? To give you an idea, sending a high-resolution map of Mars would take around nine weeks with spacecraft’s current onboard radio systems, but as little as nine days with laser communications. That kind of data rate is much more appealing for future human exploration and science missions.

With the mission operating for at least two years, LCRD will start off “talking” with ground stations in California and Hawaii to test the invisible, near-infrared lasers. Engineers will beam data to and from the satellite – located more than 22,000 miles above Earth – to study and enhance the technology’s performance for an operational mission. LCRD will also help NASA update how astronauts communicate to and from space.

As NASA goes back to the Moon, laser communications can empower sustainable communications and help us prepare for a human presence on Mars.

Get the full LCRD experience below:

The Mission:

For Fun:

For Students: 

Watch, Engage on Social Media:

Developed and led by Goodard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, LCRD is funded by the Technology Demonstration Missions program, located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which is part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Additionally, it’s funded by the Space Communications and Navigation program, also at NASA Headquarters.

Learn more about LCRD.

by Lance D. Davis

Longest Partial Lunar Eclipse in Centuries Coming as ‘Almost’ Total Lunar Eclipse

We have a rare opportunity to witness the longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years. If the weather permits, it will grace our sky on the night of Nov. 18 and early in the morning Nov. 19 across all of the United States.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth, and Full Moon form a near-perfect lineup in space. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a portion of the Moon passes through the Earth’s darkest shadow. During this type of eclipse, a part of the Moon will darken to a dim orange or red as it moves through the Earth’s shadow.

Partial lunar eclipse image
When only a part of the moon enters Earth’s shadow, the event is called a partial lunar eclipse. Credit: Brad Riza

The upcoming eclipse will be visible throughout much of the globe where the Moon appears above the horizon during the eclipse, including North and South America, Eastern Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Region. North America will have the best location to see the entirety of the eclipse.

The partial eclipse will begin a little after 1:00 a.m. CST on Nov 19 (11:00 pm PST on Nov 18.), reaching its maximum at 3:00 a.m. CST. Depending on your local time zone, it’ll happen earlier or later in the evening for you. It will last 3 hours and 28 minutes, making it the longest partial eclipse of this century and the longest in 580 years.

This is a remarkably deep partial eclipse as up to 97% of the Moon’s diameter will be covered by Earth’s darkest shadow. Only a thin slice of the Moon will be exposed directly to the Sun at maximum eclipse. Expect to see the rest of the Moon take on the orange-reddish colors, appearing as an “almost” total lunar eclipse.

Total Lunar Eclipse
A telescopic visualization of the 2021 total lunar eclipse.
Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

You won’t need any special glasses to see the partial lunar eclipse, unlike when viewing a solar eclipse. Just wake up, get out of the bed, and go outside to see the last lunar eclipse of 2021!

Learn more about eclipses here and enjoy this spectacle as you watch the skies!

by Lance D. Davis