North Olympic Peninsula residents who climb out of bed before sunrise Wednesday may see a super blue moon turn red — if the winter season’s usual cloud cover has parted.
Skywatchers on the West Coast of the United States will see a lunar eclipse of a blue moon — a term that has nothing to do with color but which refers to it being the second full moon in a month — begin at 3:48 a.m. PST, according to a statement from NASA. Totality will start around 4:51 a.m. PST and last until 6:07 a.m. PST.
The moon will be in the western sky, Noah Petro, a scientist for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told ABC News. It will dim as it passes into the Earth’s shadow and once it is completely submerged in the earth’s shadow, it will turn red, he added.
Because of the color, some call the moon in eclipse a blood moon.
It also will be a “supermoon.” The closest point in moon’s orbit around the earth is called the perigee. A full moon that happens near perigee is called a supermoon by some. Its proximity makes it seem a little bit bigger and brighter than usual.
The super blue blood moon will be “really stunning event,” Petro said.
“It’s gonna be a pretty spectacular sight to see.”
While the eclipse will be visible before sunrise in North America, Alaska and Hawaii, it will be seen in the Middle East, Asia, eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand during moonrise in the morning, according to NASA.
For live eclipse coverage online — in case of cloud cover — see https://www.timeanddate.com/live/.
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.
