A triple-headed celestial headline: How to watch Tuesday’s lunar eclipse, supermoon, blood moon trifecta

It’s a cosmic trifecta.

Stargazers will be treated to a celestial triple on Tuesday. This month’s harvest moon will coincide with a supermoon, a blood moon and a partial lunar eclipse.

While the harvest moon occurs every year near the fall equinox in September, and supermoons occur three to four times a year, witnessing all three phenomena on the same night is “pretty rare,” Teresa Monsue, an astrophysicist at the Flight Center NASA’s Goddard Space Station. said NPR.

All about lunar eclipses, supermoons and blood moons

A supermoon occurs when a “full moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach to Earth in its elliptical orbit, a point known as perigee,” according to NASA. Tomorrow night’s event will be extra special as the moon will be partially in shadow due to a lunar eclipse, which occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, Fox Weather reported.

According to NASA, the eclipse will peak just over two hours later at 10:44 p.m. EDT, when only eight percent of the moon will be covered in shadow.

“Except for the small darkened portion at the top of the moon’s disk, most of the visible lunar disk will be in Earth’s penumbra, the lightest part of the planet’s shadow that does not completely block sunlight,” Monsue explained. .

This cosmic overlap will give the lunar entity a shimmering rust-like hue known as a “blood moon.”

Sadly, the partial eclipse will be a far cry from last spring’s total solar eclipse, when the moon completely blotted out the sun, leaving a giant swath of the US in total darkness.

How and where should I watch it?

A plus side is that, unlike a solar eclipse, moon lovers can look at the space rock without goggles since the light is no brighter than ordinary moonlight, Monsue explained.

She asked stargazers to use a telescope or binoculars so they could see the contrast between craters and other features on the moon’s surface.

This three-headed celestial event will be visible from both North and South America (Europe and Africa will be able to see the eclipse), but viewing will be hindered by cloud cover over much of the US. especially on the East Coast, the Plateau region, and the Pacific. Northwest.

When will this happen again?

Those who miss Tuesday night’s eclipse and supermoon double bill won’t be able to see another until Oct. 8, 2033, according to Monsue.

Fortunately, stargazers will be able to witness the return of the supermoon in October. 17 as well as a total lunar eclipse — when the moon passes completely into Earth’s shadow — on March 14, 2025.