EUGENE, Ore. - The longest eclipse of the 21st century begins late Thursday night Pacific Standard Time, reaching maximum eclipse at 1:02 a.m. Friday morning.
If it does, you can expect the face of the moon to gradually fall into shadow and then emerge over the course of 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds. While "only" a partial eclipse, this will be the longest eclipse of any kind between the years 2000 and 2100, according to NASA's calculations.
(By the way, the shortest partial eclipse of the century is expected Feb. 13, 2082, and will last just 25 and 1/2 minutes)
"Partial lunar eclipses might not be quite as spectacular as total lunar eclipses – where the Moon is completely covered in Earth's shadow – but they occur more frequently," according to NASA. "And that just means more opportunities to witness little changes in our solar system that sometimes occur right before our eyes."
Jim Todd from OMSI said skywatchers should be on the lookout for more than just the partial eclipse.
"As extra bonuses, the eclipse will appear below Pleiades star cluster and just west of the red star, Aldebaran," Todd said. "The peak of the 2021 Leonid meteor shower occurs between the evening of November 16 and dawn on November 17, might get a few bright meteors during the night of the eclipse."
The partial eclipse begins at 11:19 p.m. PST Thurday PST.
The moment of greatest eclipse will happen around 1:02 a.m. PST Friday.
The partial eclipse ends at 2:47 a.m. PST Friday.
If you miss it, don't dismay:
There are two total lunar eclipses in 2022.