Was there an eclipse/partial eclipse last night?
No. The eclipse begins in the evening of 20 February for US observers; just after midnight on the 21st for European observers. If you’re in the US, the moon will be low in the eastern sky. In order to predict a lunar eclipse, you only need to know where the sun and the moon are with respect to the Earth. Chose a calendar date for your observation. Y = the number of the year (four digits) M = the number of the month (1-12) D = the day of the month d = 367*Y – (7*(Y + ((M+9)/12)))/4 + (275*M)/9 + D – 730530 c = d / 36525 J = d + 2451543.5 CALCULATE THE DIRECTION OF EARTH’S SHADOW. a = 1.00000261 + 0.00000562 c e = 0.01671123 – 0.00004392 c i = 0 L = 0 w = ( 102.93768193 + 1.72009009 c ) * pi/180 T = 2454468.5833 Me = 0.01720209895 (J – T) / a^1.5 Adjust Me to the interval [0, 2 pi). u1 = Me Repeat… u0 = u1 F0 = u0 – e sin u0 – Me F1 = 1 – e cos u0 F2 = e sin u0 F3 = e cos u0 D1 = -F0 / F1 D2 = -F0 / [ F1 + D1 F2 / 2 ] D3 = -F0 / [ F1 + D1 F2 / 2 + (D2)^2 F3 / 6 ] u1 = u0 + D3 Until |u1
