A rare collision of three lunar events will create a blood-red, totally eclipsed harvest supermoon this Sunday night just after 10 p.m.
This is the first time in 33 years that a supermoon will coincide with a total lunar eclipse, creating a dazzling sky-gazing opportunity: Not only will the moon look larger in the sky, but it will turn red at the height of the eclipse.
Supermoons occur when a full moon is closest to the earth in its orbit, giving the appearance of a moon that is 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than a regular full moon.
A total lunar eclipse will also occur on Sunday, casting the moon completely in the earth’s shadow and fringing the abnormally large moon in a red glow.
An eclipsed supermoon is an especially rare event; there hasn’t been one since 1982, and there won’t be another one until 2033.
This is also the last opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse anywhere on earth until 2018.
Both of these lunar phenomena will also coincide with this year’s harvest moon. The harvest moon is the full moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox of September 23, and this year’s just so happens to coincide with an astrological phenomenon that only comes a handful of nights in a lifetime.
The supermoon will begin to enter eclipse around 9:07 p.m., when the moon begins to move into the earth’s shadow. By 10:11 p.m., the moon will be completely enveloped in the earth’s shadow. The blood-red supermoon will be totally eclipsed for about an hour and 12 minutes, according to NASA.
Unlike a solar eclipse, there are no special glasses required to watch the eclipse.
Though the National Weather Service is currently calling for cloudy skies in Riverhead Sunday night, there will be more than an hour to glimpse the supermoon in total eclipse. The forecast calls for temperatures in the low 60s Sunday night.
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