If you love space and the wonder of how it all works, make sure to be on Memory Mall from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, for a chance to see a total lunar eclipse.
麻豆原创鈥檚 Robinson Observatory is sponsoring the event on the mall as part of their 鈥淜nights Under The Stars鈥� series to give students, faculty, staff and the general public a chance to see the eclipse from one of its 10 mobile telescopes. Faculty and students from 麻豆原创鈥檚 Planetary Sciences Group and from the Astronomy Society at 麻豆原创 will be on hand to help participants with the telescopes and provide expert commentary about what they are seeing.
鈥淭his is the last total lunar eclipse visible from Florida for three and a half years,鈥� said Yan Fernandez, an associate professor of physics at 麻豆原创 and director of the observatory. 鈥淭his is a great opportunity to see the moon up close during a rare event. We should also be able to sneak a peek at Saturn and its rings while we鈥檙e out there. We can鈥檛 wait to share the excitement with students, faculty, staff, the general community and children especially, even if the next day they have school.鈥�
A total lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes entirely into Earth鈥檚 shadow and gets cut off from all direct sunlight. The moon takes on a dramatic red hue as some sunlight bends around Earth while passing through our atmosphere. The alignment of the sun, the moon, and Earth has to be quite precise for an eclipse to happen. This also happens to be what NASA calls a super moon event. for more about that.
The total lunar eclipse is expected to last from 10:11 to 11:23 p.m. with partial eclipse views available before and after. Bring a chair and blanket in case it gets chilly and check the observatory鈥檚 beforehand to ensure rain doesn鈥檛 cancel the event.
Robinson Observatory is a research and education facility run by the faculty and students of the Planetary Sciences Group and the Astronomy Society within the Department of Physics.聽 For more about the observatory click here.
For more information about the event contact Fernandez at yan@ucf.edu or at 407-823-6939.