Just a reminder that there will be a total lunar eclipse this coming Sunday night and Monday morning (15โ16 May 2022). It will be visible across most of North and South America, weather permitting, and will be aย great treat for your homeschool scientists.
For the exact times at your location, visit the timeanddate.com eclipse page:
The total duration of the eclipse, from beginning to end, will be about five and a half hours. (Lunar eclipses are slow.) In the eastern United States, for example, it will begin just after 9:30ย p.m. Sunday night, reach maximum about ten minutes past midnight (Monday morning), and then end aย little before 3:00ย a.m.
If you can’t make it outside or if the weather is poor in your neighborhood, timeanddate.com will also be broadcasting aย livestream of the eclipse:
So if it’s too cloudy or too rainy or too cold to go out, you and your homescholars can spend a successful eclipse-viewing night right at home by your fireside.
Timeanddate.com also has a handy little primer on how lunar eclipses occur (and solar eclipses too), so you’ll be ready to teach a great little lesson.ย ๐โ๐โ๐
What other celestial sights and astronomical alignments have you been examining in your homeschool this Leo Term? ๐ญ
โกโ All the star-sown sky: Teaching your students the major constellations and the names of the principal stars is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. Our recommended backyard star guide and homeschool world atlas both contain charts of the constellations that will help you learn your way around the heavens. Find a dark-sky spot near you this month and spend some quality homeschool time with your students beneath the starry vault.ย โจ
โกโ Star bright: If you’d like some light and easy homeschool astronomy lessons, download and print aย copy of our annual River Houses Star Calendar and follow along with us month by month as we make twelve heavenly friends-for-life over the course of the year.ย ๐
โกโ The starry archipelagoes: For a great weekly astronomical essay, perfect for older homeschoolers, pay a visit to “The Sky This Week” from the U.S. Naval Observatory. These well-written pages, posted each Tuesday, usually focus on one or two special astronomical events or phenomena. If you have high school astronomy students, have them read these pages aloud to you each week, or ask them to study them and then narrate a summary back to you.ย ๐
โกโ Watchers of the skies: This is one of our regular Homeschool Astronomy posts. Add your name to our free River Houses mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week.ย ๐ญ