It is the astronomical event of 2025, the total eclipse of the moon that will color the moon of an intense red tomorrow immediately after sunset. High in the sky, it will also be apparently larger than a normal full moon.
For three years it was not possible to admire a similar phenomenon from Italy: the last total eclipse of the moon visible from our country had in fact been that of May 16, 2022 while the most recent of February 14, was not visible because it took place in the 6th of the morning, when the moon was setting. The next opportunity to return to see the red moon from Italy will not be before 31 December 2028.
Numerous live and online observation events organized throughout Italy and in the areas where the phenomenon will be visible, that is, most of Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. Instead, it will not be possible to admire the eclipse from the United States.
Everyone with his eyes to the sky then, starting from 19.30 on Sunday 7 September, when the moon will be tinged with his passage through the shadow cone of the earth. The Luna eclipse occurs when our satellite crosses the shadow cone that is generated when the earth interposes between the sun and the moon. Unfortunately, in the eclipse of 7 September the entrance of the moon in the shadow cone will not be visible and only shortly after 20.00, when it will be already high in the sky, can we observe our satellite already in the middle of the eclipse and an intense red. The color is due to the fact that the red component of sunlight is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere up to the moon, while the blue component is dispersed in the atmosphere. Gradually the moon will come out of the shadow cone of the earth and by 23:00 will resume its normal color, at the end of the eclipse.
It will be a show not to be missed also because at the time of the eclipse the moon will have passed the point of its orbit closest to the earth (perigee) for just under three days and will therefore appear slightly larger than usual. Observations of the online eclipse were organized by the National Institute of Astrophysics, which from 19.15 on 7 September proposes on the YouTube and Facebook channels of Edininf the filming in real time of the phenomenon from the offices of Rome and Palermo, but also from the other parts of the world thanks to the collaboration with the Time and Date website.
At 19.45 there is also the direct organized by the astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, scientific manager of Virtual Telescope. There are also numerous observation evenings organized throughout Italy by the groups that join the Italian Astrophils Union, from La Spezia to Ravenna to Salento, from Cinisello Balsamo to Benevento and Syracuse. The appointment organized in Cerveteri by Astrophili Palidoro Group and Roman Archaeological Group in the Necropolis of Banditaccia, a UNESCO World Heritage Necim, is suggestive.