Stargazers will be treated to a rare sight overnight: a supermoon and a lunar eclipse.
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A partial eclipse will begin at 9:07 p.m. ET and a total eclipse, when the moon is completely covered by the Earth’s shadow, will take place between 10:11 p.m.to 11:23 p.m., according to NASA.
Many refer to total eclipses as “blood moons”, or “hunters moons” due to the reddish-orange tint cast over the moon.
Moon has always been an attraction for humans but Blood Moon has a beauty of its own.
First Alert meteorologists Ryan Hanrahan and Tyler Jankoski have been tracking a storm over the southeastern states and are concerned that high clouds will be overhead when the eclipse occurs late Sunday evening. The next total solar eclipse will be August 21, 2017 just after 12 p.m. In fact, it will be the closest full moon of the year, about 48,000 km closer than the average distance.
He said that “the diameter of the moon will be 13 percent greater compared to the eclipse which happened in April”.
The eclipse will last more than an hour and, weather permitting, will be visible to more than a billion people in the Western Hemisphere and another 1.5 billion in in Europe, Africa and western Asia. The coloring is caused by Earth’s atmosphere scattering sunlight into the shadow.
Supermoon – Today’s full moon occurs near the perigee of the moon’s orbit – the point when the moon is closest to Earth.
The supermoon eclipse will see our planet move directly between the sun and moon – giving the lunar surface a rusty appearance. That means you won’t have to crawl out of bed at 3 in the morning to see it. And last but not least, this month’s eçlipse is no ordinary moon – it’s a Supermoon!
This rare phenomenon last happened in 1982 and if you miss this Sunday’s astronomical show, your next chance will be in 2033.
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Slooh’s tops the list of several live streams to see the lunar eclipse tonight by NASA, observatories and other skywatching groups. There were only five total supermoon eclipses in the 20th century.
