Just a reminder that there will be a total lunar eclipse this Monday–Tuesday night (7–8 November 2022). It will be visible across most of North and South America, weather permitting, and will be a great treat for your homeschool scientists.
For the exact timing of the eclipse in your area, visit the timeanddate.com eclipse page and enter your city or zipcode:
The total duration of the eclipse, from beginning to end, will be about three and a half hours. (Lunar eclipses are slow.) In the eastern United States, for example, the partial eclipse phase will begin just after 4:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, with totality arriving at 5:16 a.m. The moon will set just as totality ends, about 6:40 a.m. In the western United States the partial phase will begin just after 1:00 a.m. Tuesday and the moon will still be up above the horizon through all the final eclipse phases.
If you can’t make it outside or if the weather is poor in your neighborhood, timeanddate.com will also be broadcasting a livestream of the eclipse:
So if it’s too cloudy or too rainy or too cold (or too early!) to go out, you and your homescholars can spend a successful eclipse-viewing night indoors in cozy comfort.
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. 🌞 🌏 🌕
What other celestial sights and astronomical alignments have you been examining in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 🔭
❡ 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. ✨
❡ Star bright: If you’d like some light and easy homeschool astronomy lessons, download and print a 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. 🌟
❡ 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. 🌌
❡ 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. 🔭
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