WVII quotes Laatsch in report on Emera Astronomy Center’s free lunar eclipse viewing

WVII (Channel 7) reported the Emera Astronomy Center at the University of Maine will host a free lunar eclipse viewing Jan. 20 and 21, and quoted Shawn Laatsch, director of the center, in the report. The eclipse will begin at 9:36 p.m. Jan. 20 and last until 2:48 a.m. the following day. The complete totality eclipse, when the moon is fully in shadow, will last from 11:41 p.m. to 12:43 a.m., the report states. “Basically during lunar eclipses, the moon turns reddish brown or a deep coppery color,” Laatsch said. “The moon is passing through the Earth’s shadow but some light is reaching the surface and the moon is basically refracting or bending light through the Earth atmosphere onto the surface of the moon and that gives it that reddish brown or coppery color.” This blood moon also is a super wolf moon, meaning the moon is closest to Earth and it is the first full moon of the year. The next lunar eclipse will not occur until 2022, according to WVII.