A Total Lunar Eclipse Will Turn The Moon RED This Month, Hers's How to Watch It

 A blood red moon is just around the corner and it will be both epic and eerie. 

Depending on your time zone, the Full Flower Moon will enter Earth's shadow between the late evening of May 15 and the early morning of May 16, causing a total lunar eclipse that will be visible from the majority of the Americas and Antarctica, as well as the western reaches of Europe and Africa and the eastern Pacific. 

Observers in New Zealand, eastern Europe, and the Middle East will see a penumbral eclipse, which occurs when just the edge of the Earth's shadow falls on the moon.

The partial eclipse will begin on May 15 at 10:28 p.m. EDT (0228 GMT on May 16) and reach its peak on May 16 at 12:11 a.m. EDT, according to TimeandDate.com (0411 GMT). This impact of a complete lunar eclipse may give the moon a crimson tint known as a Blood Moon. The event will end at 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 GMT). The penumbral eclipse will begin around an hour before the partial eclipse and conclude roughly an hour after it.

Lunar eclipses occur only during full moons. Full moons occur when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun; the sun then lights the moon's whole face as seen from Earth. Due to the 5-degree tilt of the moon's orbit relative to the Earth's orbit, the moon often escapes the Earth's shadow; a lunar eclipse occurs when it does not.

There are three different forms of lunar eclipses: partial, total, and penumbral. In a penumbral eclipse, the moon passes through the diffuse outer portion of the Earth's shadow, thus there is only a modest darkening of the moon's surface. A partial eclipse occurs when a portion of the moon enters the umbra, the Earth's deepest shadow, causing a portion of the moon to become much darker.

As one would expect, a complete eclipse occurs when the whole moon enters the deepest portion of the Earth's shadow. In addition to the penumbral and partial phases, a complete eclipse will also involve the moon's entry into the umbra. The lunar eclipse that will occur on May 15–16 will be a complete eclipse, however, some areas may miss phases when the sun is above the horizon.

During complete lunar eclipses, the moon often takes on a blood-red hue. This occurs because light from the sun refracts around the Earth as if the planet were a prism, causing the light waves to be stretched out and appear on the redder side of the spectrum when they reach the moon. The hue is also affected by the state of the Earth's atmosphere; depending on the quantity of dust, cloud cover, or volcanic ash in the air, the moon may seem orange or gold.

If you miss this complete lunar eclipse, there will be another one on November 8 of this year. That one will be visible across the Americas, Oceania and Asia.

Reference(s): TimeandDate