Thursday, June 16, 2011

Oldest Moon eclipse


Interesting events in the sky occurred on Thursday, June 16, 2011 early this morning: a total lunar eclipse. This phenomenon can be witnessed all over Indonesia. In Jakarta, for example, clear skies make the lunar eclipse visible with the naked eye.

Eclipse that occurred early this morning, including special. The longest in this year. Previously, a research professor of astronomy and astrophysics from the Institute of Aviation and Space Agency, Thomas Djamaluddin said the total eclipse duration, ranging from partial lunar eclipse beginning to end, is expected to last for 3 hours 20 minutes, ie from at 1:22 pm - 5:02 pm.

The duration of it, Djamal added, longer than the total lunar eclipse which will occur on December 10, 2011. Apart from enjoying the interesting natural phenomena, lunar eclipse is an opportunity to know the quality of the upper atmosphere (the stratosphere at an altitude above 5,000 meters from the earth's surface) which may have been 'contaminated' by the accumulation of volcanic dust.

The reason is, volcanic dust that reached the upper atmosphere, can last for years. For example, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo that occurred in 1991 and took hundreds of casualties, dust vulkaniknya last up to two years.

According to Knopf, the quality of the atmosphere can be measured by looking at the brightness of the color line between the shadow of the earth with the light of the moon. When the color of moonlight looks bright and firm, then the quality of the atmosphere is better. But if the color is darker, the worse the quality of the atmosphere.

Letting Djamal, after the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 which killed about 100 thousand inhabitants, a layer of earth's atmosphere when it is covered with volcanic ash until some time so that when the lunar eclipse, the line between the shadow of the earth with the light of the moon dark and diffuse. Not only Indonesia, a country can enjoy this stunning scenery. In some countries, the moon will look red blood.


No comments: