AccuWeather reports in the predawn hours of tomorrow morning, early risers and restless souls weary from insomnia are in for a rare spectacle as the Hunter's Moon glows a coppery red, and is veiled by earth's great shadow.
Wednesday's total lunar eclipse, set to begin a little after 2 a.m. PDT, will be the second of four consecutive blood moons to be visible in the United States during a two-year span.
“It's not that often that we get a total eclipse from the United States,” said Slooh astronomer Bob Berman. “Sometimes we go years between getting them. It is a very unusual situation.”
Slooh airs astronomy events live from around the world using community telescopes to allow people to view events even if they are not visible in their region.
The fourth consecutive total lunar eclipse will occur on Sept. 28, 2015.
During tomorrow's celestial event, the moon will line up with the earth and the sun, becoming progressively redder between 2:15 a.m. PDT, when it enters earth's shadow, and 3:25 a.m. when it becomes totally eclipsed.
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“One of the cool things about the moon is that it's the only celestial body in the known universe that's speed in space makes it move one moon-width per hour;” Mr. Berman said. “It travels its own width per hour,” referring to the time the moon will take to move into earth's shadow.
Stargazers on the West Coast and East Coast will see the eclipse unfold at the exact same time, but the moon will be lower in the sky in the East as the moon begins to set while it is eclipsed. For those in the East, a clear westward vantage point will be needed to catch the final moments before moonset and sunrise.
Clouds and rain may limit viewing of the eclipse in the northeastern U.S. as a storm system swings in from the southwest. Much of the southern and central U.S. will have clear viewing under clear or partly cloudy skies. Meanwhile, thick clouds and rain may hinder the view of the eclipse over the Southwest as Simon's moisture arrives.
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The event is often called a blood moon because of the red color that is cast upon it by light refracting in earth's atmosphere.
“When the sun is completely behind the earth, what you see [if you were on the moon] is the black earth lit up from behind,” Mr. Berman said. “Surrounding this black earth in space is a ring, a fiery ring, which is really all of the world's sunrises and sunsets combined into one wedding ring of red.
“And so that red light of all the world's sunrises and sunsets, that light, gets bent or refracted into the shadow and gives the shadow its red color.”
The color of the moon, normally a coppery red during a total eclipse, can also vary, which Mr. Berman said is a great environmental report card for earth.
If there is a lot of dust in earth's atmosphere because of a volcanic eruption, the moon will disappear behind an inky, black shadow. In rare occurrences, if the edges of earth are nearly free of clouds, the moon will only be dimmed and appear yellowish.
“This is the only kind of object in the night sky that you look at it, and you learn about yourself; you learn about earth,” Mr. Berman said. “If we're very polluted, then the moon's eclipse will be very black.”
While early risers and light sleepers in the U.S. likely will be the ones to catch a glimpse of the eclipse as it occurs, Mr. Berman encourages anyone interested to take a look right before dawn if skies are clear in their area.
“I think it looks weirdest and best around 3:15 a.m. PDT,” he said.
With only 10 minutes before the moon is in total eclipse, a portion of sunlight hitting the moon from one side makes the moon look similar to Mars or a large red planet, he added.
Mr. Roberti may be contacted at justin.roberti@accuweather.com
