Next Monday morning is a full moon, which in itself would not be anything special. In this case, however, the moon is far away and therefore appears a little smaller, and there will also be a partial penumbral eclipse. However, that sounds more spectacular than it is...
Mini full moon on Monday
The Moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit, with the closest point to the Earth being perigee and the farthest point to the Earth being apogee. When the full moon occurs close to apogee, it can appear slightly smaller and be perceived as a "mini-full moon", although the difference in size is usually not dramatic and barely noticeable to most observers. This is currently the case, our satellite has a distance of 405,000 kilometers (on average it is 384,405 kilometers). There will also be a lunar eclipse on Monday morning. However, this is a special case, a so-called partial penumbral eclipse.
Fig. 1: Schematic representation of the Earth's umbra and penumbra; Source: Wikipedia
Partial penumbral eclipse
A penumbral eclipse occurs when the moon passes partially through the Earth's penumbra. In contrast to a partial or total lunar eclipse, in which the moon passes through the Earth's umbra, in a penumbral eclipse only part of the moon enters the Earth's less dark penumbra. This darkens the affected area of the moon somewhat, but the effect is less noticeable and dramatic than with a partial or total lunar eclipse. Penumbral eclipses can be easily overlooked as the difference in the brightness of the moon during such an eclipse is often subtle.
Fig. 2: Partial penumbral eclipse on January 10, 2020; Source: Wikipedia
Get up early, look closely
During a total lunar eclipse (or a high partial portion of the umbra eclipse), the moon turns a copper color, also known as a blood moon. This is not the case on Monday morning! At 6 o'clock, the penumbra covers a little more than half of the moon's disk. This dims the brightness somewhat. The darkening then continues to increase and reaches its maximum at 07:13 (when a large part of the moon's disk is actually in the penumbral region), but the moon already sets at 06:26 in Zurich, for example. In addition, the sun rises at 06:18 and twilight begins much earlier. The observation conditions are therefore anything but ideal. If you get up early and look closely, you can catch the slight pattina at the lower edge of the full moon from around 5 o'clock onwards.
Fig. 3: Presentation of the situation on Monday morning at 6 a.m.; Source: timeanddate.de
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