How to Watch This Weekend’s Supermoon Eclipse

The nights are longer, the temperatures cooler and the bugs will soon be gone. “We’re going to get to watch as the full moon plunges into the ruddy shadow of the earth”. Weather permitting, you can see the supermoon after nightfall, and the eclipse will cast it into shadow beginning at 8:11 p.m. EDT.

It’s a fairly common phenomenon, but what makes Sunday’s supermoon special is that it will coincide with a total lunar eclipse.

Fox News reported there have only been five supermoon eclipses since 1900 (in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982). [Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse: When and How to See It]. And this month’s eclipse on the 27th may be the best of them all. South of there, while the eclipse will be visible in spots, it won’t be a clean viewing for all.

When the eclipse is at its maximum, the moon will be just above the tree tops. The eclipse is expected to last 1 hour and 11 minutes. There is no actual change, simply the moon being closer to earth, appearing bigger and brighter. But even the most comprehensive map of Earth’s nearest neighbor can’t surpass the awesome sight of a blood moon rising. The color of the moon, for being too close to the Earth, first turns from Orange to Brown and then to Red. Its average distance is 239,000 miles. The relatively close proximity to the earth will result in a larger looking moon. This combination hasn’t been seen since 1982 and won’t happen again until 2033.

“It’s about 14 per cent larger than normal, NASA reports”. That is until it is darkened by the eclipse anyway. The shadow begins to recede by 10:30 pm.

Some serious astronomers dislike the term “supermoon”, noting that the visible difference between a regular full moon and a supermoon is slight to all but the most faithful observers.

The eclipse party at Penn State Wilkes-Barre will begin at 9 p.m. and last until around midnight.