At mid-eclipse, shown here in a simulated image, the moon will skirt the southern edge of Earth's deepest shadow. The result will be a range of color and brightness across the disk. Click on the image for an animation that shows the partial and total phases of the eclipse.

Lunar Eclipse Fast Facts Eclipse event times (EST, Nov. 8) Eclipse begins 5:15 p.m. Shadow becomes noticeable 5:50 p.m. Partial eclipse begins 6:32 p.m. Total eclipse begins 8:06 p.m. Mid-eclipse 8:19 p.m. Total eclipse ends 8:31 p.m. Partial eclipse ends 10:05 p.m. Eclipse ends 11:22 p.m. (UT/GMT, Nov. 8 - 9) Eclipse begins (Nov. 8) 22:15 Shadow becomes noticeable 22:50 Partial eclipse begins 23:32 Total eclipse begins (Nov. 9) 01:06 Mid-eclipse 01:19 Total eclipse ends 01:31 Partial eclipse ends 03:05 Eclipse ends 04:22

Autumn leaves flutter earthward as if exhausted by their final flush of color. Darkness comes noticeably earlier, and the weather holds more than a hint of winter's coming chill. As Halloween approaches in North America, piles of orange pumpkins seem to appear out of nowhere, ready for their transformation into grimacing jack-o'-lanterns.

Next month, the full moon will itself resemble a giant jack-o'-lantern. On the evening of November 8 - 9, it will slip through the Earth's shadow and undergo a brief total eclipse.

Skywatchers from Los Angeles to Islamabad and from Svalbard to Tierra del Fuego will have an opportunity to witness the event. Totality will be visible in its entirety throughout North America (except western Alaska), South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia.

From start to finish, the eclipse will run 6 hours and 7 minutes. But this span includes the moon's passage through the penumbra, the Earth's faint and unimpressive outer shadow. For much of North America, the moon will have already entered the penumbra by the time it rises.

Most observers won't find anything unusual about the full moon until 5:50 p.m. EST, by which time almost everyone should notice a hint of shadow creeping onto the moon's left edge. That dusky shading reflects the growing darkness of the innermost penumbra, which is illuminated by only a small sliver of sun.

More obvious changes begin when the moon enters the darker inner shadow, or umbra, at 6:32 p.m. EST. (See "Lunar Eclipse Fast Facts" for UT/GMT times.) From within the umbra, the Earth obscures the entire disk of the sun. Over the next 95 minutes, an arc of darkness will expand across the lunar disk until, at 8:06 p.m. EST, the moon is completely immersed in the umbra.

That's when totality will begin.

The moon will look strangely orange and dim as it crosses the umbra over the next twenty-five minutes. Although the Earth blocks direct sunlight from reaching the moon, the atmosphere filters and refracts some of that light into a ring of sunset colors around Earth's limb. This tawny glow fills the umbra and creates the "pumpkin moon."

Just what color we see at totality depends on a variety of factors, but the geometry of the moon's path through the umbra plays the greatest role. November's eclipse, which skirts the southern edge of the umbra, will probably look bright orange, with the southern limb of the moon brighter than the rest of the disk (see simulated image above). Recent volcanic activity and heavy cloud cover along the limb of the Earth may further darken and redden the eclipse.

Totality will end when the leading edge of the moon exits the umbra, at 8:31 p.m. EST. The partial eclipse will end when the moon's trailing limb exits the umbra, at 10:05 p.m. EST, and the moon finally leaves the Earth's penumbra at 11:22 p.m. EST.

Lunar eclipse trivia

• Totality on Nov. 8-9 lasts just 25 minutes, the shortest duration since January 1936.
• The next lunar eclipse with an unusually short totality occurs in April 2015 (duration, just 12 minutes).
• Total lunar eclipses do occur on Halloween, but not very often. The last one took place over 800 years ago, in 1175. The next will occur in 2897, almost 900 years from now.
• The Nov. 8-9 eclipse is the second in a series of four total eclipses that began in May 2003. It's the last lunar totality North Americans will enjoy until the series ends on the night of October 27-28, 2004 -- another "pumpkin moon."
• Witches from the Greek region of Thessaly claimed the ability to extinguish the moon's light and draw it down from the sky. The earliest reference to this purported feat can be found in Clouds, a comic play by Aristophanes (419 B.C).
• Plutarch described a sophisticated witch named Aglaonice. Knowing when a lunar eclipse was due, she "imposed upon audiences of women and made them all believe that she drew down the moon."
• In 1504, on his fourth and final voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus and his crew were stranded on Jamaica. When it was becoming clear they had overstayed their welcome, Columbus used a similar trick to ensure continued support from the natives until a relief ship arrived.

• Copper Moon: May's Lunar Eclipse