Observations

npr:

skunkbear:

There’s another lunar eclipse this year and it’s happening tomorrow night! (That’s Tuesday night — in other words the wee hours of Wednesday morning). Europe and Africa will be left out this time around, but viewers in North America and Asia will get the chance to see the moon pass through the earth’s shadow. Details from NASA here.

This eclipse is extra special because it might be a rare selenelion.

Don’t ask me how to pronounce that word, but here’s what it means: the refraction of light through Earth’s atmosphere makes both sun and moon appear higher in the sky then they really are. So at moonset/sunrise on Wednesday morning, a few lucky observers east of the Mississippi might glimpse the sun and the eclipsed moon AT THE SAME TIME! Geometrically impossible, and well worth setting your alarms for.

I put approximate moonset times in this GIF, but you should look up the specific schedule for your location here.

Send your photos of the ‘blood moon’ lunar eclipse to our science desk Tumblr editors at nprskunkbear@gmail.com.