On Sunday evening, Sept. 27, you’ll get the chance to see a rare type of lunar eclipse that hasn’t happened since 1982.
It is called a supermoon total lunar eclipse, and over the last 115 years there have only been five of them.
Total lunar eclipses are pretty rare this Sunday’s event will be the last one we see until 2018 but a supermoon total lunar eclipse is significantly rarer because you have two events that already don’t often happen taking place simultaneously: a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse.
Supermoon is the colloquial name for a moon that is both full (or new) and at its closest approach to Earth a term called perigee. Sunday night’s supermoon will be just 221,753 miles from Earth, which is a lot closer than its average distance of 238,900 miles.
As a result, the moon will appear about 4.7% larger than normal, reports retired astrophysicist Fred Espenak. While that’s not a giant difference, it will certainly make the total lunar eclipse a sight worth seeing. So don’t miss it!
How and where to see it
The best place to see the event which will begin at 9:07 p.m. ET will be on the east coast because you can watch all five main stages of the eclipse.
If you’re on the west coast, the moon will rise a little later, which means you’ll miss the first couple of stages. But don’t worry:
The main event when the moon is completely shrouded in Earth’s shadow will still be visible. What’s more, the moon will remain in shadow, completely eclipsed from the sun, for exactly 1 hour and 12 minutes.
And if your skies are too cloudy to see the moon there are a number of live broadcasts of the event so you don’t miss it, because the next one won’t come around until 2033:
NASA will begin a broadcast at 8:00 p.m. ET. Sky and Telescope’s live webcast will start at 9:00 p.m. ET.
And the online observatory, Slooh, will host a livestream view of the event at 8.00 p.m. ET.
During the time of total eclipse, the sun’s light doesn’t reach the moon directly but instead of turning black, the moon will adopt a beautiful, deep, blood-red hue. So, if you look up on Sunday night and see a red moon, it’s not the impending apocalypse but just astrophysics at work.
