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The April 15th, 2014 Total Lunar Eclipse

That first lunar eclipse of the year, and the first major astronomical event in 2014 is a total lunar eclipse, the April 15th, 2014 total lunar eclipse. 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. That eclipse is beginning a series of four total lunar eclipse in a row by 2014 and 2015, 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

Moon during that total eclipse will transit into the southern parts of Earth's umbra, which makes that that likely will be the northern regions of our satellite which will be the most darkened. The entirety of the total eclipse will be seen in northern America and the westernmost and southernmost parts of southern America. Either side of that area, the eclipse will either be visible by moonrise, like in Japan, Australia or the western part of the Pacific Ocean, or it will be visible by moonset, like in western Europe, western Africa, the northeastern part of northern America, or Brazil. There is no eclipse for a region extending from eastern Europe and Africa to China and western Indonesia! Spica -very close- or Mars will be seeable at the moment of the greatest eclipse

The eclipse's main data are the following (data as of October 2013, 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): 1.2907
- greatest eclipse: 07:45:39.8 UT
- eclipse duration (penumbral): 05h44m00s
- eclipse duration (umbral): 03h34m44s
- eclipse duration (total): 01h17m48s
- eclipse contacts (in UT): P1 (penumbral eclipse begins) at 04:53:37, U1 (umbral eclipse begins) at 05:58:19, U2 (total eclipse begins) at 07:06:47, U3 (total eclipse ends) at 08:24:35, U4 (umbral eclipse ends) at 09:33:04, P4 (penumbral eclipse begins) at 10:37:37

see a .PDF map for the April 15th, 2014 total lunar eclipse (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