Longest Blood Moon of the Century

Blood Moon ©NASA

The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century takes place today (Friday, 27th July 2018).

The total period of "blood moon" eclipse will last 1 hour and 43 minutes, during which Earth's companion satellite will turn a proverbial red colour. From start to finish, the awesome celestial event will last nearly 4 hours.

The Moon turns red or reddish brown instead of going completely dark during eclipses. An eclipse occurs when the Earth blocks direct sunlight from hitting the moon. By grand design or "pure chance", the distance between the Earth and the Sun is 400 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, which spookily matches the ratio of the sizes of the Earth and Moon. This means that the diameter of shadow cast by the Earth exactly matches the diameter of the full Moon.

"What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" - Blake

Lunar Eclipse ©NASA JPL-Caltech

Clever scientists explain that the red colour is because some of the sunlight going through Earth's atmosphere is bent around the edge of our planet to hit the moon's surface.

Earth's air scatters shorter wavelengths of light in the green/blue spectrum like a prism; leaving the longer wavelengths or reds to actually hit the Moon.

27 July 2018 Map ©NASA

Hoping for no cloud cover, the eclipse will be visible fully by moon watchers in much of Africa, the Middle East, southern Asia, the Indian Ocean and Antarctica.

Other regions that will see some parts of the eclipse are much of Europe, rest of Asia, Australia, South America, and Pacific.
The eclipse won't be visible to viewers in North America, except via webcasts.

Mars

For the keen astronomers, there is a Martian Bonus.

The total lunar eclipse occurs on the same day the planet Mars reaches its 'opposition', when it will shine at its best in the night sky.

This month, the Red Planet will be at its closest to Earth since 2003.

After opposition, when Mars will be brightest, it will reach that closest point on 31st July.

My Favourite Moonphase Watches

Of course, even if the clouds obscure the full moon just before the eclipse, you can still get a close representation of the moon age with moon phase watches.

Our fascination with these timepieces revolves around their lunar display driven by mechanical movements as a culmination of precise micromechanical engineering and artisanal handicraft.

Friends, for your consideration, I submit a few of my favourite watches with moon phase display:

L.U.C Lunar One by Chopard
CHF 67,500 (US$67,900) in platinum (prices before taxes)

L.U.C Lunar One Mk 2 © M.Bosse

The L.U.C Lunar One flagship model of the L.U.C collection is now available as a new platinum limited edition. Chopard’s perpetual calendar model bearing the Poinçon de Genève (Geneva Seal) has an astronomical moon-phase display on a deep blue sunray-patterned dial. A deep blue sky, studded with the actual constellation pattern of the Northern Hemisphere, also features a moving moon display that evokes poetry....

"In what distant deeps or skies,
 Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
 On what wings dare he aspire?
 What the hand, dare seize the fire?" - Blake

L.U.C Lunar One Mk 2 © M.Bosse

The moon display boasts astronomical precision, since it will take 122 years to accumulate a one-day time lag compared with the actual moon and only then will it require re-adjustment.

calibre L.U.C 96.13-L recto ©Chopard

First presented in 2005 as the Mk 1 version, the L.U.C Lunar One has over the years become a flagship model in the Chopard Haute Horlogerie collection. This Mk 2 version of the perpetual calendar watch with large date and moon-phase display showcases the full range of watchmaking skills cultivated at Chopard and the core thema of the L.U.C aesthetic. This classic masculine model, governed by elaborate rules of symmetry and optimal legibility for perfectly balanced appearance, was introduced in platinum for 2017.

Functions and displays:

Central display of the hours and minutes
Small seconds at 6 o’clock
Perpetual calendar with day, date, month and leap-year cycle
Outsize date display at 12 o’clock
Day/night indicator at 9 o’clock
Moon phases appearing in a rotating aperture (orbital moon) at 6 o’clock

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L.U.C All-in-One by Chopard
EUR 374,000 (US$437,000) in platinum (before taxes)
EUR 360,000 (US$420,600) in rose gold (before taxes)

L.U.C All-in-One Ref.161925-5002 dial ©Chopard

46 mm L.U.C All-in-One watch in 18-carat rose gold featuring a gold hand guilloché nickel colour dial and equipped with a L.U.C mechanical movement with manual winding – L.U.C 05.01-L. The watch is presented on brown alligator strap with brown alligator lining; the mark of Chopard attention to luxury detail with leather both inside and out.
Limited edition of 10 pieces. Reference: 161925-5002

The refined, exclusive and ultra-complicated new L.U.C All-in-One from Chopard orchestrates 14 indications on its two faces, including extensive calendar and astronomical functions, as well as a tourbillon. It is issued in two limited series of 10 pieces in platinum and 10 pieces in 18-carat rose gold, all bearing the Poinçon de Genève (Geneva Seal). Discrete ultra-complexity is imbued with the effortless elegance of the L.U.C collection. A watch replete with refined details and colours, the L.U.C All-in-One embodies the peak of Chopard’s in-house approach to watch manufacturing, a distillation of exclusive craftsmanship.

L.U.C All-in-One Ref.161925-5002 back ©Chopard

Functions and Displays:

Dial side

Central display of the hours and minutes
Small seconds on a tourbillon at 6 o’clock
Perpetual calendar with 24h indication and day of the week indication at 9 o’clock
Display of the month and leap year at 3 o’clock
Aperture-type large date display at 12 o’clock

Movement side

Display of the equation of time, power reserve, 24-hour day/night indication, sunrise and sunset times set to Geneva and astronomical orbital moon phase.

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Andreas Strehler Lune Exacte
CHF 112,000 (US$112,700) in 18k red gold (before taxes)
CHF 125,000 (US$125,700) in platinum (before taxes)

Lune Exacte both ©Andreas Strehler

Usually, on mechanical watches with moon phase display, the precise phase of the moon usually deviate from the synodic or mean moon by one day after a couple of hundred years. Better mechanical examples usually achieve a precision of 122 years and rarely even a few thousand years.
Andreas Strehler’s moon phase mechanism is precise to two million years.

Sauterelle Lune © Melvyn Teillol-Foo

This has won the his Sauterelle à lune perpetuelle watch an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Lune Exacte

Lune Exacte ©Andreas Strehler

The most precise phase of the moon display can now be set and read extremely accurately. All mechanical moon phase displays had a common problem until now. As precise as they may be, they cannot be read very precisely. Except at new moon and at full moon, the observer has to guess what the exact phase or age of the moon is. Precise setting of the moon phase is only possible at new moon and full moon.

Andreas Strehler has changed this with the first precise moon phase display on a mechanical watch.

Lune Exacte back ©Andreas Strehler

The Lune Exacte can be read and easily set within a precision of three hours, at any time and not just every fortnight, thanks to its new and patent pending mechanism. This high precision moon age indication shows the age of the moon in days and fractional epochs of three hours.

Moon Vernier Scale

On the dial of the watch, there is a conventional moon phase display and the additional age of the moon is shown by a moon Vernier scale at six o’clock. On this high precision moon age scale, a red arrow indicates the age of the moon in days. Two red marks on the scale indicate new moon and full moon.

A Vernier scale on the inner Vernier ring increases the precision of the indication to three hours.

Lune Exacte Vernier ©Andreas Strehler

1.The red arrow shows the age of the moon in days.

2.If the red arrow points to a day number in the blue sector of the outer scale, the hours must be read from the blue sector of the inner Vernier ring. The age of the moon accurate to three hours is indicated where the next mark on the Vernier ring aligns with a mark on the outer ring. These incremental hours are added to the days indicated on the outer ring.

3.If the red arrow points to a day number in the yellow sector of the outer scale, the hours must be read from the yellow sector on the Vernier scale as described before.

Lune Exacte ©Andreas Strehler

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Comment

For the purpose of eclipse watching, there is no doubt that the most precise moon age display today on a mechanical watch is on the Andreas Strehler Lune Exacte. For the aficionado of micromechanical engineering, this is the zenith of moon phase precision.

However, for the romantic connoisseur, the deep blue sky, studded with actual constellations of stars above the Northern Hemisphere and the frosted silvery depiction of the moon phase on the Chopard watches are more compelling.

Regards,

MTF