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Blood moon rising

Blood moon rising

WA’s skygazers will keep watch tonight for the last total lunar eclipse until 2018.

But they will need to be quick — the main phase will last only minutes, leading NASA to dub it the shortest eclipse of the century.

Scitech’s planetarium manager Jeff Harris said conditions were expected to be good for watching the Earth’s shadow creep across the full Moon, likely resulting in a reddish “blood Moon”.

It will be the third in a rare sequence of four eclipses, known as a tetrad, but the final one in September will not be visible from Perth.
In WA, the partial eclipse begins at 6.15pm, as the Moon begins to look darker on one side.

The eclipse peak is six minutes either side of 8pm, with the Moon in full shadow. A partial eclipse will then continue until 9.45pm.

Julie Matthews has had a lifelong passion for astronomy while husband Paul, an engineer, has a more scientific bent to his interest.

At home in Gidgegannup, the spectacular night sky helped pass the enthusiasm to their children, particularly aspiring astrophysicist Jacob, 17.

“I wanted to be an astronomer and although I got sidetracked, I never stopped loving it,” Mrs Matthews said. “It’s so beautiful here on clear nights.

The family are in the Stargazers Club WA, which has a ticketed eclipse event at the Old Perth Observatory in West Perth.