Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, November 28-27 2012.

Evening sky looking west as seen from Adelaide at 1:00 am local daylight time on Thursday November 29. The Moon is not far from Aldebaran and Jupiter. At this time the penumbral eclipse will be at its darkest. The keen eyed may see a slight darkening of the northern half of the Moon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time.  Click to embiggen.

From the late evening of the 28th November to the early morning of the 29th November there will be a penumbral eclipse of the Moon. It will be visible in all of Australia, New Zealand and most of Asia.

In a penumbral eclipse, the Moon only enters the outer part of Earth’s shadow. This will results in a subtle darkening of the Moons northern half (although it is a relatively deep penumbral eclipse, it still doesn’t get very dark). Depending on how good your eyesight is, it could be reasonably visible, or only visible via photography.

The table below shows the time of the eclipse from Eastern, Central and Western Australia. For Eastern and Central Australia subtract an hour for non-daylight saving states. The early parts of the eclipse will be effectively invisible to the unaided eye. When around 2/3 of the Moons disk is immersed in the penumbra, then you will see an effect (around half an hour either side of maximum eclipse).

For everywhere in Australia except WA, the eclipse occurs around midnight, you will have to be dedicated to stay up for this. For other regions, see here for UT timings.