CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — If you missed April’s total eclipse of the moon, now’s your chance to catch another.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — If you missed April’s total eclipse of the moon, now’s your chance to catch another.
But you’ll need to stay up late or get up early, depending on how you look at it.
Overnight tonight (or early Wednesday morning), if the skies are clear, North America, especially in the West, and the Hawaiian Islands will have prime viewing of a full lunar eclipse. The total eclipse will last an hour.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and the full moon form a nearly straight line so that the full moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, called the umbra.
It also will be visible across Australia and much of Asia. Only Europe, Africa and the eastern tip of Brazil won’t get the show.
In Hawaii, the first phase of the eclipse begins at 11:15 p.m. today. The total eclipse begins at 12:25 a.m. tonight (early Wednesday morning), with the greatest eclipse occurring at 12:55 a.m. The total eclipse will end at 1:24 a.m. tomorrow, with the final phase of the eclipse ending at 2:34 a.m., according to EarthSky.org.
The moon will appear orange or red, the result of sunlight scattering off Earth’s atmosphere. That’s why it’s called a blood moon. Tonight’s full moon also is the Northern Hemisphere’s Hunter’s Moon — the full moon after the Harvest Moon.
According to other media outlets, there will be two full lunar eclipses again next year. The next lunar eclipse will be April 4, 2015.
If you’re more into solar eclipses, there will be a partial one visible in parts of the U.S. later this month, on Oct. 23. But the next total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. won’t be until Aug. 21, 2017.
The Associated Press, other media outlets and science websites contributed to this article.