We're in for a celestial treat early on Friday morning, Nov. 19, as a partial lunar eclipse will light up or in this case "shadow" the night sky. Plan ahead to stay up late or wake up early to see the moon shrouded in reddish-orange.
The whole process will happen over 6 hours and 2 minutes. The partial eclipse will last 3 hours and 28 minutes and the red appearance of the moon about 35 minutes. It will be the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440, and the next one this long won't happen again until the year 2669.
Thursday night to Friday morning timeline (EST):
> 5:17 p.m. through 1 a.m.: Full moon completely illuminated.
> 1:02a.m.: Penumbral lunar eclipse begins - moon moves into outer shadow of the Earth creating a subtle dimming of the moon's bright normal color.
> 2:19 a.m.: Partial lunar eclipse begins - moon moves into the Earth's center shadow and looks like a bite is taken out of the moon with very dark color for section in umbra.
> 3:45 a.m.: Red color of moon becomes visible.
> 3:58 a.m: Exact full moon.
> 4:03 a.m.: Peak eclipse - most of moon will be shaded in red/orange with only a sliver of the bottom left illuminated.
> 4:20 a.m.: Red color ends - back to moon appearing like there is a dark bite out of it.
> 5:47 a.m.: Partial lunar eclipse ends - moon is out of umbra, just the subtle dimming of normal moon color.
> 7:04a.m.: Eclipse over regular full moon in twilight of dawn.