Author: Vicky Stein / Source: PBS NewsHour
Blood moon. Supermoon. Wolf moon. The lunar eclipse, beginning the night of Jan. 20, has garnered plenty of descriptors. But the gist is that this Sunday, the Earth will block the sun’s rays from reaching the moon, and it’s likely to look pretty awesome.
WATCH LIVE: If you can’t make it to a patch of clear sky, witness the lunar eclipse in the player above, thanks to timeanddate. com. Coverage will begin at 10 p.m. ET.
All of North and South America will be able to see the full eclipse — at least those areas lucky enough to get clear skies. Most of Africa and Europe will catch at least part of the event, but India, China, Australia and all the countries in between will unfortunately miss out on the action.
If you want to watch the eclipse in real life, viewers in the Eastern Standard Time zone can expect to see the eclipse reach totality with the moon high in the sky at 11:41 p.m. and continue for about an hour.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some words people are using to describe this celestial event:
Lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth’s shadow passes over the moon. They occur only at full moons. Partial or total lunar eclipses happen up to three times per year and are often visible from a large swath of the planet at a time.
A total lunar eclipse happens when the sun, the Earth and the Earth’s moon are in a nearly straight line, like they will be for the overnight (Jan. 20-21) event. Partial lunar eclipses happen when only some of the moon passes through the shadow that the Earth creates. The third class — penumbral eclipses — are difficult to…
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