Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

December 21, 2010 - Winter Solstice. The shortest day and longest night of the year. This means, essentially, that because of the tilt of the earth, the sun is the furthest south it will be all year. And right now, the moon is also at its northernmost point in its rotation around the earth. According to the experts, this will be the northernmost lunar eclipse in centuries!

The last time a lunar eclipse happened on the winter solstice was in 1554. And according to EarthSky, there won’t be another total lunar eclipse this far north on the sky’s dome until December 21, 2485.

If you want to know if and when you can see the eclipse, check out this site - it talks all about it and lists the best times to see it. In my area, Mountain Time, it will be totally eclipsed at 12:41 am on December 21. Total eclipse ends at 1:53 am. So it's a good full hour of lunar eclipse viewing.