Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

You can watch Tuesday’s total lunar eclipse even if it’s cloudy

By
LIVE: Total Lunar Eclipse - November 08, 2022

With the next total lunar eclipse not taking place until March 2025, few people will want to miss Tuesday’s opportunity to witness this awe-inspiring celestial event.

Recommended Videos

A total eclipse takes place when Earth moves directly between the sun and the moon. The lack of direct sunlight casts a shadow across our nearest neighbor. As the shadow moves across the moon, it creates what is known as an “umbra” where the light is completely blocked, and also a “penumbra” where the light is partially blocked.

The highlight, however, comes as the moon gradually appears in a reddish color, a gorgeous phenomenon caused by the refraction of light passing through Earth’s atmosphere.

If you’re located in the Americas, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Eastern Europe, clear skies will give you a good view of Tuesday’s total lunar eclipse, though unfortunately folks in Western Europe and Africa will miss out == but there’s still a way to see it.

So, for anyone in Western Europe and Africa, or for people in places where cloud cover obscures the view, you can simply hop online to watch the total lunar eclipse. OK, it’s not quite the same, but at least it enables you to still witness this rare event in real time.

To watch the total lunar eclipse as it happens, use the video player embedded at the top of this page. The feed will go live on Tuesday morning at 1 a.m. PT (4 a.m. ET/9 a.m. GMT). At this time, Earth’s shadow will begin to fall on the moon, with totality occurring about 75 minutes later. A number of expert contributors from around the world will offer commentary and explanations as the eclipse passes through its various stages.

Able to watch the lunar eclipse by gazing skyward? Then check out this Digital Trends article for more information.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
NASA map shows where you can see a solar eclipse across the U.S.
Using observations from different NASA missions, this map shows where the Moon’s shadow will cross the U.S. during the 2023 annular solar eclipse and 2024 total solar eclipse. The map was developed by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) in collaboration with the NASA Heliophysics Activation Team (NASA HEAT), part of NASA’s Science Activation portfolio.

Some of the most fascinating astronomical events to see from Earth are solar eclipses, when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun and blocks out some or all of the sun's light. The resulting darkness during daytime is fascinating and can lead to some stunning views -- though, for safety reasons, you should never look directly at the sun and should use a tool like a pinhole camera to observe eclipses instead.

However, these eclipses happen on a rather complex schedule related to the orbit of the moon, so exactly when and where to see an eclipse can be hard to track. To help with this, NASA has created a map of the U.S. showing when and where you can see a solar eclipse in 2023 and 2024.

Read more
NASA’s Lunar Flashlight satellite won’t make it to its planned orbit
This illustration shows NASA’s Lunar Flashlight carrying out a trajectory correction maneuver with the Moon and Earth in the background. Powered by the small satellite’s four thrusters, the maneuver is needed to reach lunar orbit.

This week has seen good news for one NASA moon mission, as the CAPSTONE satellite recovered from a communications issue, but bad news for another. The Lunar Flashlight mission, which is intended to search the south pole of the moon for water ice, now won't make it to its planned orbit.

This illustration shows NASA’s Lunar Flashlight carrying out a trajectory correction maneuver with the Moon and Earth in the background. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Read more
NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission hindered by thruster issue
This illustration shows NASA’s Lunar Flashlight carrying out a trajectory correction maneuver with the Moon and Earth in the background. Powered by the small satellite’s four thrusters, the maneuver is needed to reach lunar orbit.

A briefcase-sized satellite on its way to the moon is experiencing difficulties with its thrusters. NASA's Lunar Flashlight spacecraft is a small uncrewed satellite designed to search the moon's south pole for surface ice using near-infrared lasers.

Launched in December last year using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the satellite was deployed along with a private Japanese moon mission which includes a rover built by the UAE. Lunar Flashlight is still on its way to the moon as part of its four-month planned journey, however, the thruster issue could impede its progress. The plan is for it to enter an orbit called a near-rectilinear halo orbit, an efficient lunar orbit that requires little fuel to maintain.

Read more