According to NASA, the penumbral lunar eclipse will be at its greatest point on Wednesday at 7:48 a.m. Eastern Time (4:48 a.m. Pacific Time).
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In a penumbral eclipse, the moon will not enter into the dark shadow of the earth, but to the lighter shadow.
To put those numbers in perspective, the Sun has an apparent magnitude of -27, the full moon -13, the brightest planet Venus measures -5, and Sirius, the brightest visible star in the night sky, is at -1.5.
This eclipse will be most visible between 2am and 5am on Wednesday.
National Space Agency head of corporate communications unit Wan Hakimah Abd Rahim said the eclipse would start from 7.21pm as the moon begins rising until 9.55pm, when it moves out of the Earth’s penumbra (shadow). As it goes, Vancouverites as well as people in central and western United States will be in for a better view of the penumbral lunar eclipse. When the full moon misses the umbra completely and only passes through the lighter penumbral shadow, the result is a penumbral eclipse. However, in the early morning hours on Wednesday, beginning around 4:00 am, peaking at 5:47 am, and lasting until the moon sets, some of you may recognize the subtle and still cool coloring of a full moon in the outer shadow of the earth. When the Moon moves through the outer shadow – the penumbral shadow – the eclipse features are less pronounced. The remaining 35 percent constitute total lunar eclipses.
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“Earth produces two kinds of shadows: umbral and penumbral”.
