Total Lunar Eclipse on the Winter Solstice Tuesday morning
Tuesday is the official beginning of winter when the winter solstice occurs at 6:38 pm EST. This is the official beginning of winter astronomically in the northern hemisphere as our part of the earth is tilted away from the sun. The suns rays will directly be hitting the Tropic of Capricorn making our days very short and the sun angle very low. This typically is know as the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
Summer Solstice
This year we get an added bonus of a complete lunar eclipse on the same day as the solstice. Something that hasn’t happened in over 456 years. There is some good news for avid sky watchers in the Carolinas. We should be able to view it and the weather will cooperate with some clear skies and high clouds but chilly temperatures. 
The eclipse will begin Tuesday morning December 21st at 1:33am EST. This is when the earths shadow will start to appear in front of the moon as a dark-red edge to the moons disk. It will take about a whole hour for the shadow to completely move across the entire face of the moon. The peak or ”totality” of the eclipse will start at 2:21am EST and last a whole 72mins! If you just want to set the alarm and run outside for the very best part of the whole eclipse. That will occur right at 3:17am EST. This is when the entire moon will look a coppery red instead of it’s typical grayish white color.
The red color is due to the sunlight leaking over the rim of the earth in the form of a thousand sunsets and sunrises all at once. This light casts a reddish luster to the moon and if you live where there is snow on the ground. This reddish glow will turn the snowpack a eerie red or copper color. Colors you don’t normally see snow take on
Here’s what the eclipse would look like.
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