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The Total Lunar Eclipse of September 28th, 2015

That second and last lunar eclipse for that year, and the last major astronomical event in 2015 is the total lunar eclipse of September 28th, 2015. A total lunar eclipse if a fine show worth the observation, with Moon progressively occulted and darkened by Earth's 'umbra,' giving a deep sense of the astronomical scales of the Universe and the large events which may occur there. for more about Moon eclipses, theoretically, see our tutorial: Moon Eclipses. Like the other total lunar eclipse in 2015, the September 28th, 2015 lunar eclipse is part of a series of four total lunar eclipse in a row by 2014 and 2015 -and last of it- with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six full moons as some call such a eclipse a 'Blood Moon' eclipse. Such rows of total lunar eclipse are relatively common at some periods, with 8 planned in the 21st century, or null, with the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries which featured none of those. There has been a total of 62 rows of four successive total eclipses since the beginning of the Christian era. That eclipse further is the one with a relatively larger Moon as it occurs when the Moon is reaching perigee, its closest Earth, and even the closest Full Moon for 2015. A Moon total eclipse at perigee, generally, is a rare occurrence as only five such eclipses have been seen since 1900 A.D., by 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982. The next such one is to occur by 2033 only!

As the Moon during that total eclipse will transit relativement deep into the Earth's umbra, the eclipse, at greatest, will be dark enough. The entirety of the total eclipse will be seen either part of the Atlantic Ocean, from the eastern part of North America and the whole of South America, to western Europe and western Africa. Areas either part of that either will have the eclipse by moonrise, like for the western part of Americas, the eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean and a larger part of Mexico, or the eclipse by moonset, like from eastern Europe and eastern Africa to central Siberia and India. No eclipse is extent from central Siberia down to Indonesia to the center of the Pacific Ocean

The eclipse's main data are the following (data as of November 2014, NASA Eclipse Web Site). for more about how to observe a lunar eclipse, see our tutorial 'Observing a Moon Eclipse':
- umbral magnitude (fraction of Moon's diameter immersed in the umbra at greatest): 1.2764
- greatest eclipse: 02:47:07.5 UT
- eclipse duration (penumbral): 05h10m41s
- eclipse duration (umbral): 03h19m52s
- eclipse duration (total): 01h11m55s
- eclipse contacts (in UT): P1 (penumbral eclipse begins) at 00:11:47, U1 (umbral eclipse begins) at 01:07:11, U2 (total eclipse begins) at 02:11:10, U3 (total eclipse ends) at 03:23:05, U4 (umbral eclipse ends) at 04:27:03, P4 (penumbral eclipse begins) at 05:22:27

see a .PDF map for the total lunar eclipse of September 28th, 2015 (path of the Moon within the Earth's umbra and map of the visibility of the eclipse worldwide). map courtesy NASA Eclipse Web Site

. for more about this eclipse and for more about solar and lunar eclipses generally, you may see at NASA Eclipse Web Site