01/17/2019 – According to Space.com, a total lunar eclipse will appear overnight from Sunday (Jan. 20) to Monday (Jan. 21), and the potentially copper-colored moon — dubbed a “blood moon” — will be visible from all of North and South America.
A lunar eclipse can occur only during a full moon phase. And since this full moon will appear to be one of the largest of 2019, NASA also describes the lunar eclipse’s full moon as a “super” moon. The term has only been used in the past few decades and became especially popular during the three consecutive supermoons of late 2016.
There are no precautions you need to take when observing a lunar eclipse since the moon is never bright enough to hurt our eyes like the sun is. A blood moon is one of the few opportunities we have to see both the moon and the stars in the sky at the same time since the moon is usually too bright.
There is a little less than one total lunar eclipse per year on average. Lunar eclipses don’t occur every month because the moon’s orbit is tilted, so usually when the moon is full, the Earth’s shadow passes a little bit above or a little bit below it. That’s why most months don’t have a lunar eclipse.
The super blood moon of January 21 will occur this time around because the moon will pass through the top portion of Earth’s shadow.
Minutes after 9:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, Earth’s shadow will start passing in front of the moon from the lower left, he said, and about an hour later, the full lunar eclipse appears. This totality lasts roughly another hour. The moon doesn’t disappear from sight but does become “10,000 or so times dimmer than usual.
The next total solar eclipse visible from the United States will be on Nov. 8, 2022. The next time a Super Blood Wolf Moon will happen will be in 2037.
