Penumbral Eclipse of February 10, 2017

There was a penumbral eclipse of the moon that was visible from Franklin tonight. The moon entered into the penumbral shadow of the moon,

There was a faint lunar eclipse tonight The moon passed through the earth's penumbral shadow, but not the umbral shadow. It rose already partially in the shadow. The moon appeared to be slightly darker on the top half for a couple of hours. It was not noticeable in the photos I took tonight, nor in the time lapse. 

Our next total lunar eclipse won't be until January 18, 2018, but it will set while at full eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse that will be visible from beginning to end for us won't happen until January 21, 2019. On the plus side, we will have a total solar eclipse on the afternoon of August 21st of this year. The last total solar eclipse to occur in Franklin was on July 20, 1506 and the next one will be on October 17, 2153. More details on that event are at the end of this article.

Details of tonight's eclipse

Penumbral eclipse began: 5:34 p.m. (on February 10) (The moon rises at 6:06 pm...the time may be later if you have mountains in the way)
Greatest eclipse (nearest umbra): 7:44 p.m. (on February 10)
Penumbral eclipse ended: 9:53 p.m. (on February 10)

Read more about this event at EarthSky. [LINK]

Here is a video of the eclipse from someone with a telescope, and even with it, the faint shadowing on the top of the moon is hard to see:

Photos taken during the eclipse.







THE 2017 SOLAR ECLIPSE 

More details about the solar eclipse that will take place on Monday, August 21, 2017 and the total solar eclipse will last for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

The partial phase begins at 1:00 pm.
Totality will begin at 2:35:26
Totality will end at 2:37:56
The partial phase ends at 4:00 pm

Image showing the areas in western North Carolina that will see the total eclipse. The shaded area between the two red lines sow all the places from which the total eclipse will be visible, barring clouds.

A table showing the timing of the eclipse for Main Street and Phillips Street. The times are in Universal Coordinated Time, a system of time used by astronomers, to get the local time for the events, just subtract 4 hours.

A graphic showing in more detail the center line of the eclipse that passes through Macon County.