It should be quite a show in the night sky on Sunday as the Supermoon undergoes an eclipse. The closest perigee for 2015 occurs on September 28 (September 27 in the Pacific Time Zone) at around 1:52 Universal Time, when the Moon will be 356,877 kilometers (221,753 miles) away.
Advertisement
We don’t get eclipses every time a full moon occurs because the moon’s orbit around the Earth does not lie exactly in the ecliptic, the plane in which the Earth orbits the Sunday. This makes it appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the average full moon.
“It really ought to be called a tiny, slightly little bit bigger moon, rather than the supermoon“.
Some people also will refer to Sunday’s event as the “super moon” because the moon will be at its closest point to the Earth.
The Supermoon/Eclipse combination hasn’t happened in 32 years and won’t happen again for another 18 years.
Viewers will be able to behold the supermoon soon after sunset, while the lunar eclipse will begin at 8:11 p.m. EDT with the Earth’s shadow dimming the giant moon.
This causes the moon to look red to our naked eye.
Scientists say the appearance of the moon will be much larger than normal and that it will turn red as it falls under the shadow of the Earth.
A “blood moon” results from a total lunar eclipse, when the Earth blocks the sun’s light from the moon. “A bite out of the Moon (partial phases) should be noticeable starting just after 9 p.m. and the obvious effects will last until about 12:30 a.m”. Historically, Incans and Mesopotamians viewed lunar eclipses as random, frightening occurrences when they’re actually quite predictable, Petro added.
Advertisement
27, eclipse will be the fourth and last eclipse of a tetrad, a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses over two years.
