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Total Lunar Eclipse Set To Wow Star Gazers, Clear Skies Willing (reuters.com)

Astronomy buffs across the United States have been promised all the makings of a spectacular total lunar eclipse on Sunday except one -- clear skies. From a report: Star gazers from Los Angeles to New York will keep their eyes on the sky for the eclipse, known as a super blood wolf moon, expected to appear at 11:41 p.m. EST. Although it is a total eclipse, the moon will never go completely dark but rather take on a coppery red glow -- called a blood moon. It is also a full moon that is especially close to Earth, called a supermoon.

And since it appears in January, when wolves howled in hunger outside villages, it has earned the name wolf moon, according to The Farmers Almanac. But no matter how perfectly the stars align for this stellar event, the thrill or disappointment of the evening really depends on one thing: the weather.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Energeian Planes by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The light doesn't fade in, the camera exposure changes. I am imaging it now, and keep having to increase the exposure to see it. If I had it set the same way as the full moon, the picture would be black.

  2. Not exactly blood red. More like orange by mnemotronic · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wouldn't call it red ... more like orange. A giant tangerine tossed into the firmament. A plump pomegranate parked in the Pleiades. A Clementine coasting amongst the constellations.

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  3. Re:Obligatory by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... and we got to see full totality for maybe 15 minutes before the fog started to significantly interfere. Now I can’t even tell where the moon is...

    But it was still cool, regardless.

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  4. Perfect here by Orgasmatron · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, it is 6 below zero (F), but the skies were perfectly clear for me. I was worried because the forecast for tonight has been saying "overcast" for days.

    It wasn't nearly as impressive as the solar eclipse of 2017, but still pretty neat.

    We've got snow cover here, so it is surprisingly bright with a full moon - enough light to read a book by, or drive without your headlights. As the penumbra moved in, I couldn't tell any difference looking at the moon, but I did notice that it was getting dark out. As the umbra moved in, it was plainly visible, and kinda screwy-looking. Many years ago, I got in the habit of reading partial phases of the moon as a pointer towards the present position of the sun, so it was odd that to me, the moon looked like it was pointing to a sun just under the northwest horizon.

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