Author: Nicholas St. Fleur / Source: New York Times
Christian Merz/KEYSTONE, via Associated Press
Skygazers across the Western Hemisphere will be treated to celestial eye candy on Sunday night into early Monday morning as the full moon turns coppery red during a total lunar eclipse. It will be the only total lunar eclipse of the year, and that in itself should be reason enough to stay up late and marvel as the moon gets swallowed by Earth’s shadow.
You might have heard that this eclipse is also being called a “Super Blood Wolf Moon.” But as astronomers know, no number of edgy modifiers could make this display of cosmic clockwork any cooler.
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Unlike a total solar eclipse, when the moon moseys between the sun and the Earth, it’s our planet that slides between the sun and the moon during a total lunar eclipse. As the Earth blocks the sun, only slivers of light make it through the planet’s atmosphere and to the moon.
“If you were standing on the surface of the moon when this event was happening, and you were staring back at the Earth, what you would see is this beautiful reddish-orangish tinted ring,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History.
That ring of light is made up of every sunrise and sunset happening on Earth at that moment in time. It’s the same light that makes the moon look red to those of us on Earth during the eclipse.
Who can see the lunar eclipse?
This eclipse will be visible in the night sky across North and South America. Skywatchers in parts of Europe and Africa will see part of or the entire eclipse in their predawn skies.
People living in Asia and Australia will not see this eclipse, unfortunately.
When can I see the eclipse?
The opening act starts Sunday night at 9:36 p.m. Eastern Time as the moon first enters Earth’s outer shadow, also called the penumbra. Darkness will creep up the lower left portion of the moon, almost imperceptibly.
At about 10:34 p.m., the moon will start to enter Earth’s inner shadow, or the umbra. This marks the beginning of the partial lunar eclipse, when it will appear as if something took a bite out of the moon.
At 11:41 p.m., the moon will enter totality and turn completely red as it is devoured by Earth’s umbral shadow. It will stay this way for about one hour, and at 12:12 a.m. on Monday, it will reach the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, appearing to be at its most coppery red.
“The moon becomes 10,000 times dimmer than what it was,” said Brian Murphy, director of the Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium at Butler University in Indianapolis. “Because it is so dim at that point, you’ll be able…
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