St. George was scheduled to see a portion of a partial lunar eclipse on Thursday, Aug. 27, provided clouds cleared. According to Time and Date, the moon rises at 8:01 p.m. and will already be partially within Earth's shadow at that time.
The partial eclipse was scheduled to begin at 8:33 p.m. and continue until 11:51 p.m., with a maximum coverage of 93% occurring at 10:12 p.m. The full moon, known as the Sturgeon Moon, was expected to be completely visible again at 1:01 a.m. Friday.
According to NASA, this lunar eclipse was visible across North America, though the West Coast would only see part of it. The East Coast and portions of the Midwest were scheduled to see the full eclipse. The event was also visible in the Southern Hemisphere, with all of South America seeing the full eclipse.
During a partial lunar eclipse, only a portion of the moon is covered by Earth's shadow, which differs from a total lunar eclipse where the entire moon is covered. Eclipses occur when the sun, moon, and Earth align. In a lunar eclipse, Earth moves between the moon and the sun, casting a shadow onto the moon.
Weather conditions in St. George were forecasted to be mostly cloudy on Thursday night with a low of 79, according to the National Weather Service. Experts recommend finding a dark location away from light pollution and allowing eyes 20 to 30 minutes to adjust to the dark when observing celestial events.
