BUMPED: The "Super Blood Wolf Moon" Total Eclipse Is Tonight Starts in Less Than an Hour; Total Eclipse Will Happen by 11:40 Eastern

"It begins."

Posted by: Guy Who Thinks Things Are Always Beginning

It will be red and big, and then it will disappear in a total eclipse.

The total eclipse will begin at 11:41 Eastern, but the partial eclipse, in which the moon will dim and turn reddish, starts at 10:33 Eastern.

This unique total lunar eclipse will begin on January 20 at 10:35 p.m. ET and end at 1:51 a.m. ET on January 21.

"Viewers will see a normal full moon at first starting at around 10:35 p.m. Eastern time," said Walter Freeman, assistant teaching professor at Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences' physics department. "At that time, the Earth's shadow will begin to pass in front of the moon, blocking almost all of the sun's light from reaching it. Observers will see the moon appear to be progressively 'swallowed up' starting from the lower left. This process will end at 11:40 p.m., when the Earth's shadow covers the whole of the moon's surface; this is the beginning of 'totality.' This will last until around 12:40 a.m., when the motion of the Earth's shadow will carry it past the moon, and the moon will gradually again be lit by the sun. At 1:45 a.m., the moon will be fully visible again."

Note that the precise times given by sources vary. The exact times might depend on your exact position on the earth. Anyway, they all seem to agree about those general times.

It will be a perfect eclipse through most of North America and South America.

Here's the Farmer's Almanac about the meaning of a super moon and a blood moon:

2. What is a Supermoon This is a "supermoon" eclipse because the eclipse occurs when the Moon is near "perigee," its closest point to Earth. Perigee is the term astronomers use. When this happens, the Earth’s shadow will engulf the full Moon, transforming the lunar disk into a coppery-red orb.

3. What is a Blood Moon?
As mentioned above, a lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes into the shadow of the Earth; this causes the usually bright full Moon to turn a dark, coppery-red. Hence, this eclipsed Moon is being nicknamed the "Blood Moon" in the media. "'Blood Moon' is not a term used in astronomy. It's more of a popular phrase, perhaps because it sounds so dramatic. It simply refers to a 'total lunar eclipse.'"

The wolf moon is just the first full moon of the new year.

If you have misbehaving children, tonight is a good night to Re-Impose Your Parental Authority by taking them into the back yard and telling them you will Destroy the Moon unless they clean their Legos off the floor.

Open thread. Obviously you can't talk about a coming eclipse very long, unless you're a crazy person.

I'll do another post on this later, and then maybe put another one up around midnight.

posted by Ace of Spades at 09:24 PM

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