How To Watch The 'Super Flower Blood Moon' Lunar Eclipse This Week
This map this Wednesday at 6:11 AM Eastern time. Shows visibility of total lunar eclipse. A full lunar eclipse will be visible everywhere in the Pacific and mountainous time zones, as well as in Texas, Oklahoma, western Kansas, Hawaii, and Alaska
The night sky audience is in for a treat this week with the arrival of this week called Super Flower Blood Moon.
The long name is the result of some astronomical events coming together. The supermoon will be visible all over the world, and the full lunar eclipse will be visible in many parts of the world, including the western United States.
The us People waking up early in the morning can get a great view of the moon before sunrise on Wednesday morning, but what you will be able to see will depend largely on where you live.
Why it is "super": The shape of the Moon's orbit around the Earth is not a full circle, but an ellipse. When a full moon reaches the closest point of our planet in its elliptical orbit, it is called a supermoon, or perigee-siziji, and it appears larger than normal in the sky.
Why it is "flower": The full moon that occurs in May is sometimes referred to as the flowering moon. According to The Old Farmers Almanac, the name is a reference to the flowers that are in bloom in May and has been attributed to Native American, Colonial American, and European sources.
Why it is "blood": On Wednesday morning, the moon will also appear blood red as it aligns with the sun and the earth and moves completely into the earth's shadow, or womb. This will be the first full lunar eclipse since 2019. The red color of the Moon is due to the red-orange light refracting through the Earth's atmosphere and, according to NASA, may appear even more red when there is more cloud or dust in the Earth's atmosphere.
The biggest attraction of this astronomical event is that a supermoon and a full lunar eclipse are happening simultaneously. In the last 10 years, there have been a total of nine lunar eclipses. Supermoons are more common - they usually occur several times a year.
How to see it: Luckily, anyone will be able to see the supermoon as long as the sky is clear where they are, NASA says.
But can you see the full lunar eclipse - when the moon will turn blood red - is another story.
Stargazers, in most of the Central America and parts of South America, along with the West America and Canada, will be able to see a total lunar eclipse starting at approximately 7:11 pm Eastern time (which is 5:11 am Mountain Time and 4 Is: 11) am on the west coast).
The full lunar eclipse will last for about 15 minutes.
People on the east coast will miss the full moon, but you may still be able to catch a partial lunar eclipse starting at about 5:45 pm ET. It will not appear in New England and parts of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Take a look at this animation from NASA at what time the eclipse will appear based on your location:
"You only need your eyes to see the drama, but if you have a telescope or a backyard telescope, they will give a much better view," said Diana Hannikainen, Observing Editor for Sky and Telescope.
And if you want to catch the full Super Flower Blood Moon, but can't get to where you are, many livestreams will be hosted by observatories and astronomers around the world.
Hanikenen said that those who missed Wednesday's eclipse should not despair - they would be able to have another eclipse on the night of 18 to 19 November.
"Technically, the November event will be partial, but only the thinnest part of the Moon's disk will remain outside the womb, so for all intents and purposes it will be like a total eclipse," she said in a statement.