Total Lunar Eclipse of December 21, 2010
Near Total Lunar Eclipse
If you live in North America, you will have a great opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010. So get the coffee ready and plan on pulling an all nighter because you won’t want to miss this one!
On December 21, 2010 at 1:33 am Eastern Standard Time (EST) – 8:17 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) – the Moon will enter Earth’s penumbra or partial shadow. You will see the moon dim and begin to turn a reddish color. At 2:41 am EST, the Moon will enter the Earth’s umbra or full shadow. This is when the total lunar eclipse begins.
The total lunar eclipse will last until 3:53 am EST – which is over an hour of total eclipse viewing time! The show’s not over yet though because the Moon won’t pass completely out of Earth’s shadow until 5:01 am EST. Check out MrEclipse.com. This website has a great diagram of the event.
So why does a lunar eclipse occur? When the orbits of the Earth, Moon and Sun are lined up just right, the Moon will pass behind the Earth and enter the Earth’s shadow. The Earth’s shadow blocks out most of the light from the Sun and the Moon goes dark! Lunar eclipses always occur when there is a full moon.
Since the moon is traveling 2,300 miles per hour through the Earth’s shadow, the total eclipse can last up to 107 minutes. So…you’ll have plenty of time to see it and photograph it. If you get any great pictures of the event, send them to us and we’ll post them on the site.
UPDATE: Pictures of the eclipse have been posted and will continue to be posted as we recieve them! Check out our 2010 Winter Solstice Total Lunar Eclipse Review page!
Thank you all for your comments!
I can wait to see the lunar eclipse tommorow
from december 20 2010
[Reply]
is a big day for Geminis?
[Reply]
What a waste of my time..
[Reply]
Justin replied:
December 21st, 2010 at 3:13 am
It was cloudy and I see nothing.
[Reply]
Girl replied:
December 21st, 2010 at 10:21 am
I couldn’t neither.
[Reply]
gbfcghdr replied:
December 21st, 2010 at 10:58 am
well i saw it in the sky and it was asome
This sucks! I live in West Covina, CA and it’s raining!
[Reply]
this so cool i acually woke up at 2:00 and i saw it with my own eyes
[Reply]
I stayed up hoping the clouds might clear. They didn’t and I never saw the moon last night at all :/
[Reply]
it was terrible! i got up too see it but it was too cloudy… stupid wichita, so i had to google it, it would have been cool
[Reply]
Was a great experience, watched it with my fiancee. Was a beautifully clear night in FL!
[Reply]
Tractor Willy replied:
December 21st, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Southern Ontario Canada was clear and I was working midnights so I was able to see it from start to finish…
An awesome site and I wish I had a better camera…
[Reply]
i like the luner eclipse
[Reply]
It was waste i couldn’t even see it. I heard that there was shooting star. I would have been cool to see it. Well Maybe Next Time
[Reply]
i saw it, and it was amasing. it was a rare site and i got a picture!
[Reply]
It was truly awesome! We had cloud and rain showers the entire day and the cloud only broke partially during the build up to the full eclipse, sp we only had brief unobstructed views, but then at about 12:20am California time, the cloud opened up to show us the amazing orange glow of the solstice moon in full eclipse, in all it’s glory. We danced like children beneath the cold stary sky with the the orange glow of the moon directly overhead.
Happy Yuletide everyone!!!!
[Reply]
Saw most of it before clouds took over the sky. The best part was sharing the experience with my 9 year old daughter who said “I’m so lucky to live right now and see this….I’ll have to remember to do this again in 85 years!”
[Reply]
look like an orange in the sky with the clear night in good ole madville,fl . seemed as if i could grab it out of the sky.
[Reply]
what a peaceful night! Watched the eclispe from my backyard, bundled up in the lounger, it was beautiful and the color was rusty looking. Glad I did it!
[Reply]
It was perfectly clear in Omaha and the Moon looked exactly like the picture at the top of this page. Looking at it with just a pair of binoculars was really amazing. You could see all the details of the craters and the seas, but in a reddish orange hue! Very Beautiful!
[Reply]