There will be a penumbral eclipse of the Moon, though it will not be visible from Ashburn since the Moon will be beneath the horizon at the time.
The eclipse will last from 10:36 until 14:54, and maximum eclipse will occur at 12:45 (all times given in Ashburn time).
A penumbral eclipse
Like other lunar eclipses, penumbral eclipses occur whenever the Earth passes between the Moon and Sun, such that it obscures the Sun's light and casts a shadow onto the Moon's surface. But unlike other kinds of eclipses, they are extremely subtle events to observe.
In a penumbral eclipse the Moon passes through an outer region of the Earth's shadow called the penumbra. This is the outer part of the Earth's shadow, in which the Earth appears to cover part of the Sun's disk, but not all of it (see diagram below). As a result, the Moon's brightness will begin to dim, as it is less strongly illuminated by the Sun, but the whole of the Sun's disk will remain illuminated to some degree.
Although the Moon's light dims considerably during a penumbral eclipse, this is only perceptible to those with very astute vision, or in carefully controlled photographs.
On this occasion 80% of the Moon's face will pass within the Earth's penumbra at the moment of greatest eclipse, and so a modest reduction in the Moon's brightness may be perceptible.
Visibility of the eclipse
Eclipses of the Moon are visible anywhere where the Moon is above the horizon at the time. Since the geometry of lunar eclipses requires that the Moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, the Moon can be seen above the horizon anywhere where the Sun is beneath the horizon. The map below shows where the eclipse of December 11 will be visible.
The table below lists the times when each part of the eclipse will begin and end.
| Local time | UTC | |
| 10:36 | 15:36 | Moon begins to enter the Earth's penumbra |
| 12:45 | 17:45 | Greatest eclipse |
| 14:54 | 19:54 | Moon leaves the Earth's penumbra |
This eclipse is a member of Saros series 116. The exact position of the Moon at the moment of greatest eclipse is as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Angular Size |
| The Moon | 05h13m | +21°57' | Taurus | 29'40" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
| The sky on 20 August 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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73% 9 days old |
All times shown in EDT.
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Source
Espanak, F., & Meeus, J., Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses: -1999 to +3000, NASA Technical Publication TP-2009-214172 (2009)
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You can download it from:
https://in-the-sky.org/news/eclipses/lunar_203812.png
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Image credit
None available.