Blood-red Supermoon should be ‘spectacular’

IOWA CITY - A 'Supermoon” can be just that - super - all by itself.

But when the about annual occurrence coincides with a lunar eclipse - something that happens only every 20 or 30 years - the event can be 'spectacular,” said University of Iowa physics and astronomy professor Robert Mutel.

'It's like seeing the Northern Lights,” Mutel said. 'It's a spectacular natural phenomenon.”

The next super lunar eclipse is expected to decorate the night sky Sunday, making the moon appear massive and blood red for about an hour.

The event last occurred in 1982 and won't happen again until 2033. And, as long the weather holds, Mutel said this weekend's event should provide ideal viewing conditions for most of North America - especially for those youngest onlookers with bedtimes.

'In western Europe it will be later at night,” he said. 'So this is really convenient for the middle part of North America.”

The moon becomes super about every 14 months when it's fullest and also closest to the Earth, making it appear bigger and about 25 percent brighter than at its dimmest. Total lunar eclipses can happen a couple times a year when the Earth's shadow blocks the sun's reflection off the moon.

The rare combination, which casts the moon in a blood-red or copper hue, should being to unfold in Iowa about 10 minutes after 7 p.m. Sunday, according to Mutel.

Just after 8 p.m.,

with the sky darker and the event easier to see, the moon will start to go through the dark part of the Earth's shadow, allowing onlookers to see the planet's curvature.

At 9:11 p.m.,

the total eclipse will begin - meaning the moon will be completely in the Earth's shadow.

About 10:20 p.m.,

the total eclipse will end.

By 11:30 p.m.,

the partial eclipse will end - meaning the moon will be completely out of the dark part of the shadow.

And although this weekend's moon will be remarkable in that a person might only see something like it two to three times in his or her lifetime, Mutel said, the visual would be even more impressive from the surface of the moon.

'What you would see is a very dark Earth, with the lights of the cities, and then you would see this ring of fire around it,” Mutel said. 'It would be pretty spectacular.”

Fun facts

The moon

can turn red during an eclipse because some light from the sun passes through the Earth's atmosphere. Other colors are blocked and scattered, but red light can make it through.

Ancient Greeks

used lunar eclipses to determine the size of the Earth and that it was round.

Christopher Columbus

in 1504 leveraged a blood-red eclipse to frighten Jamaican natives into feeding him and his crew. Columbus told the locals that God was angry at them for no longer supplying food and - using an almanac foretelling an upcoming lunar eclipse - said to expect a sign of God's displeasure three nights later. He warned the moon would appear 'inflamed with wrath.”

It worked, the natives were terrified, and Columbus and his crew were well fed until they sailed back to Spain.

Source: Space.com