LRO and the Lunar Eclipse of April 15, 2014: Telescopic View

  • Released Thursday, April 10th, 2014
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:51PM
  • ID: 4156

Dial-A-Moon

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Time (UTC) 2023-01-01T00:00
Obscuration 00.0%
Phase 00.0% (0d 0h 0m)
Diameter 0000.0 arcseconds
Distance 00.0 km (0.00 Earth diameter(s))
J2000 Right Ascension, Declination 0h 0m 0s, 0° 0' 0"
Sub-Solar Longitude, Latitude 0.000°, 0.000°
Sub-Earth Longitude, Latitude 0.000°, 0.000°
Position Angle 0.000°

Typically, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft flies over the night side of the Moon every two hours, spending about 45 minutes in darkness. Because LRO is powered by sunlight, it uses a rechargeable battery to operate while on the night side of the Moon and then charges the battery when it comes back around into daylight.

During the total lunar eclipse of April 15, 2014, however, LRO emerges from the night side of the Moon only to find the Sun blocked by the Earth. LRO needs to travel an entire orbit before seeing the Sun again, relying continuously on its battery for almost three hours, longer than it ever has before.

LRO won’t be in any real danger as long as its power consumption is handled carefully. Its scientific instruments will be turned off temporarily, while vital subsystems like the heater will remain on. LRO will be closely monitored throughout the eclipse.

This animation shows the Moon as it might look through a telescope on Earth, with LRO’s orbit, its view of the Sun, and a fuel gauge showing received sunlight and the battery’s charge.

LRO's view of the Sun during the eclipse. The view is dark when the Moon is in the way. The frames include an alpha channel.

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Datasets used in this visualization

LRO DEM (A.K.A. Digital Elevation Map) (Collected with the LOLA sensor)
DE421 (A.K.A. JPL DE421)
Ephemeris NASA/JPL
LRO WAC 643nm High Sun Global Mosaic (Collected with the LROC sensor)
Mosaic

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