Partial eclipse…and a Blue Moon on New Year’s Eve

A PARTIAL eclipse of the moon will occur hours before the full moon this New Year’s Eve.  The actual eclipse will be small, with only a thin sliver of the moon obscured at the midpoint of the eclipse which will occur in Cyprus at 9:23pm on December 31 2009.  However, it is set to be a particularly impressive eclipse nevertheless, weather conditions permitting, due to the expected size and brightness of the moon that night.

This eclipse is set to occur within hours of the lunar perigee (when the moon is closest to the Earth during its orbit around the Earth).  In addition, this eclipse is also set to occur within a few days of Earth’s perihelion (January 3, when the Earth is closest to the sun in its annual orbit). Thus, the moon is extra close to the Earth while the Earth is extra close to the sun during the upcoming eclipse.

The wider shadow cast on the moon’s surface during the eclipse is thus set to be especially impressive, perhaps more so than the small portion of the moon actually obscured.  The moon will enter the Earth’s overshadow at 7:15pm and exit it at 11:30pm.

Tonight’s moon is also what is known as a ‘Blue Moon’ meaning it will be the second full moon in a calendar month.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.