Supermoon Eclipse: 5 Answers To Your Questions

“What we have coming up is the entire moon’s moving into the thickest part of the earth’s shadow”, explains Pitkin.

In order to celebrate the super harvest moon lunar eclipse phenomenon, the Waubonsie planetarium is hosting a family night at 7 pm on Friday at the high school at the corner of Route 34 and Eola Road in Aurora. The partial eclipse begins at 9:07 p.m. and the total eclipse will follow at 10:11 p.m.

In the early hours of Monday, 28 September, you can expect to see the event gradually as the moon appears closer to our planet than usual from around 2am. “Contrary to a solar eclipse, there is no problem in watching a lunar eclipse with the naked eyes, or telescope”.

A supermoon is the result of the fact that the moon does not orbit around the earth in a flawless circle. They occur when a full moon passes close to the earth during it’s orbit, which is not perfectly circular.

Supermoon lunar eclipses are historically rare, though their frequency has increased in the 21st century, according to Bob Berman, Slooh astronomer. If you miss this rare supermoon-total lunar eclipse combination, you’ll have to wait until 2033 for the next one.

Indirect sunlight bending through the atmosphere and around the earth gives the moon a sort-of-spooky reddish tint during the eclipse, resulting in the nickname “blood moon”. A supermoon can appear up to 30 per cent brighter than at the earth-moon apogee (when the two bodies are furthest from one another).

It’s also no cause for concern, despite the ancient Incans and Mesopotamians believing the moon to be under attack during a lunar eclipse. The eclipse ends when the moon leaves the shadow at 6.24am. Enough light will diffract around the earth, so the moon will not completely disappear.

If it’s too cloudy to see the moon, the party will move indoors to the Bell Center for Technology for a live broadcast of the eclipse from another location.