Watch Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse from Sheepshead Bay

Tonight is one of nature’s most wondrous events, a lunar eclipse. The fact that it’s happening on the Winter Equinox, the longest night of the year, makes it exceptionally rare and special.

The eclipse begins shortly after midnight at approx 12:30 a.m. The eclipse will reach it’s greatest point at 3:17 a.m., at which point the entire moon will be behind Earth’s shadow and will appear from pale pink to blood red in the sky. This happens because the only light from the sun to reach the moon has passed through Earth’s atmosphere, changing it’s wavelength. The eclipse finally ends just in time for work around 7:00 a.m. You can learn more about this eclipse and others at Wikipedia or from this NASA PDF.

The best place to view an eclipse, or any celestial event for that matter, is someplace away from the glare of city lights. Thankfully Sheepshead Bay doesn’t have as many lights as other neighborhoods in the city. If you want to view the eclipse tonight the best places will be the roof of a building (make sure the get permission!), Emmons Avenue, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach (any point along the boardwalk) and the roof of the UA parking lot.

Bundle up warm and head out around 3 a.m. and catch one of the most amazing and beautiful events you can see in a lifetime, and to think you can see it from right here in Sheepshead!