Peninsula Daily News
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Tonight will bring not only a “supermoon,” the closest and therefore biggest-looking full moon of the year, but also a lunar eclipse and a red-tinted “blood moon.”
Cross your fingers for clear skies.
It hasn’t happened in 33 years and won’t again for another 18 years; this is the first confluence of a lunar eclipse with a supermoon since 1982 and the last until 2033.
This rare occurrence is also the fourth and final eclipse in a tetrad — four consecutive total lunar eclipses, each separated by six lunar months — which has helped prompt end-of-the-world doomsday declarations from all corners of the Internet.
A Christian pastor in Texas wrote a book predicting a world-shaking event.
Apocalyptic statements by a Mormon author have caused some in Utah to buy extra food, tents and emergency supplies.
These doomsday scenarios prompted leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to take the rare step of issuing a public statement cautioning its 15 million members to “avoid being caught up in extreme efforts to anticipate catastrophic events.”
NASA noted: “People have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years in recorded history, and not a single time has that come about.”
A supermoon occurs when a full moon happens at the closest point in its elliptical orbit around Earth, making the full moon appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is directly opposite the sun, with the Earth in the middle.
“Blood moon” refers to the reddish color our celestial neighbor often takes on during an eclipse.
Supermoon eclipses have occurred just five times since 1900 (in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982). “Normal” lunar eclipses are much more common, happening at least every
2½ years.
The first three eclipses in the unusual lineup of eclipses called a tetrad took place April 15, 2014; Oct. 8, 2014; and April 4, 2015.
September’s full moon, known as the Harvest Moon, is happening tonight just four days after fall began with the autumn equinox.
Tradition says the Harvest Moon’s glow helps farmers work into the night gathering crops.
With the moon high in the eastern sky, tonight’s total eclipse will start at 7:11 p.m. and last for one hour and
12 minutes.
Almost a half-hour earlier, at 6:46 p.m., the Harvest Moon will reach perigee, the closest approach to the Earth in its orbit.
It will be about 221,750 miles away — more than 17,000 miles closer than its average distance.
It becomes full at 7:50 p.m., but by then, the moon’s larger-than-life face will be engulfed in Earth’s shadow, deep into totality.
The eclipse will hit its peak at 7:48 p.m. and end at 8:23 p.m.
During this event, the Earth’s shadow will block light from the sun that normally reflects directly off the moon.
Instead, light refracts around the edges of the Earth to give the moon a reddish-orange glow of sunset — hence the “blood moon” nickname.
You don’t need special glasses or gizmos to watch it, unlike a solar eclipse.
You can stare directly at the moon, or use binoculars or a telescope.
NASA will provide a live video feed on the Internet (www.nasa.gov) of the entire eclipse — an option in case clouds obscure your own view.
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A version of this story originally appeared in the PDN on Friday.
