Partial Lunar Eclipse: August 16, 2008

Geographic Region: S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia

The last eclipse of 2008 is a partial lunar eclipse at the Moon's ascending node in Capricornus. It is visibile primarily from the Eastern Hemisphere as well as eastern South America. Greatest eclipse takes place at 21:10:06 UT when the eclipse magnitude will reach 0.8076. The timings of the major phases of the eclipse are listed below.

The Moon’s trajectory takes it through the northern umbral shadow, resulting in a partial eclipse that lasts 94 minutes. At mid-eclipse the Moon's northern limb passes 5.9 arc-minutes outside the umbra's northern edge. The Moon's southern edge is then 16.5 arc-minutes from the shadow's centre.

Eclipse map and predictions courtesy of Fred Espenak - NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
For more information on solar and lunar eclipses, see Fred Espenak's Eclipse Home Page:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html