Lunar Eclipse Wednesday

You do not have to be an astronomy buff to appreciate the lunar eclipse coming up on Wednesday night, the last of its kind until 2010. Yet, if you are one to mind local folklore, legend has it that pregnant women should keep to their beds during eclipses.

It is warned that women with child should refrain from looking at eclipse or from moving at all. The "old wives" tale suggests that pregnant women should sit or lie still for the duration of the event, or risk the baby being born with a scar or defect. The Caribbean Institute of Astronomy (CARINA) has advised that the celestial spectacle will begin at 9.43 p.m., local time, when the moon is high in the sky.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, in orbit around the Earth, passes into Earth's shadow. The shadow has two parts, because the sun is not a point of light-the inner, darker umbra and the outer, lighter penumbra.

If the whole moon enters the umbra, the eclipse is total. If the umbra hides only a part of the Moon, the eclipse is partial. Earth's shadow takes 78 minutes to envelop the moon. Totality (when the moon lies totally within the Earth's umbra) begins at 11.01 p.m.

The moon would not disappear, however. Some sunlight passing through Earth's atmosphere falls on the lunar surface. During totality, the moon's northern edge will appear darker than its southern side. This disparity occurs because the moon's northern limb will lie closer to the centre of the Earth's shadow.

Totality lasts 51 minutes. During the first half, the sky becomes progressively darker, the background stars of Leo the Lion will appear. The constellation's brightest star, Regulus, appears three degrees (six moon-widths) above the moon. After totality, it takes the moon another 78 minutes to leave Earth's umbra.