November 8, 2003 Lunar Eclipse Statistics

Moonrise
5:27 PM EST

Penumbral Eclipse
Begins at 5:15 PM EST Saturday November 8, 2003

Partial Eclipse
Begins at 6:32 PM EST Saturday November 8, 2003

Total Eclipse
Begins 8:06 PM to 8:30 PM EST, Saturday November 8, 2003

Partial Eclipse
Ends at 10:04 PM EST Saturday November 8, 2003

Penumbral Eclipse
Ends at 11:21 PM EST Saturday November 8, 2003

The reason why a total lunar eclipse doesn't happen every month is that the moon's orbit is tipped at about 5 degrees to the earth's orbit around the Sun. This means that the moon spends most of its time either above, or below the plane of the Sun and the earth. But a few times a year, the moon will pass through some part of earth's shadow causing an eclipse to be seen by those who are on the part of the earth that faces away from the Sun [nighttime!]. Usually, only an eclipse that occurs as the moon passes through the Umbra [the darkest part of earth's shadow] is visible to the naked eye on earth. This means that a penumbral eclipse is usually hard to detect.