Las Vegas in line for lunar eclipse early Wednesday
If the sky is clear, Las Vegas residents will be treated to a total lunar eclipse early Wednesday morning, and the College of Southern Nevada is opening its observatory in North Las Vegas for people to see the show.
The moon is expected to start entering the darkest part of Earth’s shadow at 2:18 a.m. Wednesday. It will be completely shrouded in shadow by 3:28 a.m. and stay there for about an hour before it begins to pass back into sunlight.
The eclipse will end at 6:34 a.m., about the time the moon sets and the sun rises. It should be easily visible anywhere in the valley, weather permitting.
The forecast calls for cloudy skies Tuesday and partly cloudy skies Wednesday, but Robert Pippen, CSN’s planetarium program manager, remains optimistic that valley residents won’t miss the celestial show.
“We’re hopeful,” he said.
CSN’s student observatory on Cheyenne Avenue east of Interstate 15 will open to the public at 11 p.m. Tuesday and stay open through the eclipse. The Las Vegas Astronomical Society is also expected to be on hand to provide additional telescopes.
Some are predicting a so-called “blood moon,” which occurs when particulate matter in Earth’s atmosphere gives the moon a reddish cast during an eclipse. Pippen said it’s certainly possible because there have been a few volcanic eruptions around the globe in recent months, but it’s a pretty difficult thing to predict with any certainty.
“You really don’t know until it happens,” Pippen said.
Lunar eclipses occur two to four times a year, but each is usually visible from widely different locations on the earth.
This eclipse will be the second of four lunar eclipses visible from North America over an 18-month period, something that only happens a few times each century.
The final two lunar eclipses in this series of four will occur April 4 and Sept. 28.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.
