Late tonight, September 27, 2015, from 10.11pm EDT in the US and at similar times across much of the world, a total lunar eclipse will mask the moon’s larger-than-life face for more than an hour on the same night as the Supermoon. The big silver moon – appearing nearly 15 percent larger than an ordinary full moon – will to turn red in our planet’s shadow.
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“This won’t happen again until January 2019, so this is really an awesome opportunity to see it”, she continued.
In Western New York, a thick cloud cover will likely impair eclipse watching, according to Jim Mitchell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Looking to the east, you’ll see a dark blue layer with a bit of pink above.
When will it be visible and how long will it last?
“The supermoon will be visible after nightfall, and the eclipse will case into shadow beginning at 8:11 p.m. EDT”, NASA said.
Western’s physics and astronomy department will be hosting a public viewing event for the total lunar eclipse this Sunday. If you’re in a cloudy area and can’t get a glimpse, you can still watch it in real-time on NASA’s live-stream. NASA will be streaming the event from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Streaming begins at 7 p.m.
Why Will the Moon Look Bigger? On Monday, the moon’s elliptical orbit will bring it about 50,000 kilometers closer to the Earth than when it is at its farthest point. It’s more of an oval, and at certain times the moon is closer to the earth.
On top of that, the moon will be at its closest approach to Earth for the year, meaning it’s also a supermoon.
Why Will the Moon Look Red?
This is how Nasa explains this: The moon does not make its own light; it reflects light it receives from the Sunday.
The supermoon lunar eclipse is a combination of two things. This Sunday that process will be complicated. “It is the alignment of the sun and the moon”. Sunlight can still reach the moon, but it will have to bend around the earth.
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Depending on the conditions of our atmosphere at the time of the eclipse (dust, humidity, temperature and so on can all make a difference), the remaining light will illuminate the moon with a color that ranges from copper to deep red. Hagee wrote “Four Blood Moons”, in which he claimed that a sequence of four lunar eclipses – with Sunday’s being the final one – is a sign from God that a “world-shaking event will happen between April and October 2015”.
