Was it a Lunar Eclipse?

Question

I saw the moon tonite arnd 8pm (GMT+8) and it was faint and red in colour. It lasted for abt half and hour, then the moon was normal again.

There was a scheduled lunar eclipse on the 16th of august, but today is 17th. Could anyone corroborate what I saw was really an eclipse?

Answer 1

8PM? it was probably particulates causing the moon to look red.  Had you said that it was early that morning I might have agreed.  GMT +8 includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Indonesia, and parts of Australia.  

The web page I found mentions the following places getting to see the partial lunar eclipse on the morning of 17th of August a lot of New Zealand (as it set near sunrise, so likely wasn't very noticable), Australia and down to Antarctica and as far east as Argentina.  I suspect Indonesia got to see part of it even though it isn't mentioned specifically, but I doubt that anyone much farther north might have witnessed it.  

Looks like South Africa and Madagascar had about the best view of it, but if I were in Australia to view it, Perth might have been a great choice with Karratha being a good alternate.

Answer 2

Hi Chironji!

What you describe could only have happened had you been in Brazil on Saturday evening the 16th.

The partial eclipse of the moon started before sunset in eastern Brazil.  Mid eclipse happened about 6:10 p.m. Brasilia Time and the eclipse ended at 7:44 p.m. Brasilia Time.

It could not have happened this way in Malaysia and Singapore, because there the eclipse did not start until 3:36 a.m. Malaysia Time.

Even if you had been under the partial eclipse of the moon, I'd be surprised to hear that it happened as you describe.  In a TOTAL eclipse of the moon, the lunar disc appears faint and red in color, but not a partial eclipse.  In a partial lunar eclipse, the bright uneclipsed crescent washes out the faint light of the darkened area.  You might see it with a ghostly appearance, but it would not appear red.

In any case, the eclipse happened Sunday morning in southeast Asia.  The moon was long gone from the earth's shadow by Sunday evening.  The most likely explanation for what you saw might be clouds or haze.

Answer 3

A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes.  

Answer 4

If it was 8 pm local time, then the moon must have been rising. But from time zone GMT+8 (the far east) the eclipse was only visible towards moonset in the early hours of the 17th. So I would conclude that you didn't see the eclipse. It was a partial eclipse, so part of the moon would have appeared blacked out rather than red.

If you want to check for yourself, there's more information at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEpl...

Edit:

Dust in the atmosphere scatters blue light, leaving objects near the horizon with a red appearance. A red moon near the horizon therefore arises from the same phenomenon which produces a red sunrise or sunset.