INTERNATIONAL NEWS - It hasn't happened in 32 years, and won't for another 18 years: Sunday evening, a total lunar eclipse will coincide with a "Supermoon."
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the full moon and the sun. The Earth's shadow covers the moon, which often has a red color, hence the "blood" moon nickname.
Although it's completely in the shadow of Earth, a bit of reddish sunlight still reaches the moon.
"That red light shining onto the moon is sunlight that has skimmed and bent through Earth's atmosphere: that is, from all the sunrises and sunsets that ring the world at any given moment," according to Alan MacRobert of Sky and Telescope magazine.
The total eclipse will start at 10:11 p.m. EDT (7:11 p.m. PDT) Sunday evening and will last one hour and 12 minutes. It will be visible across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific, NASA said.
Although it's completely in the shadow of Earth, a bit of reddish sunlight still reaches the moon.
"That red light shining onto the moon is sunlight that has skimmed and bent through Earth's atmosphere: that is, from all the sunrises and sunsets that ring the world at any given moment," according to Alan MacRobert of Sky and Telescope magazine.
The total eclipse will start at 10:11 p.m. EDT (7:11 p.m. PDT) Sunday evening and will last one hour and 12 minutes. It will be visible across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific, NASA said.
