Viewing This Weekend’s “Super Blood Wolf Moon” Eclipse
We’re facing an unpredictable forecast for Sunday evening into Monday, but if the weather cooperates, East Enders will be in for a treat when a total lunar eclipse will turn the moon blood red in the wee hours of Monday morning.
The eclipse is being called a “Super Blood Wolf Moon” in homage to three features that make it unique. The January full moon is traditionally called the “Wolf Moon” and this eclipse occurs during a “supermoon,” when a full moon occurs when the moon is at perigee, its closest point to the earth. The “blood” is a reference to the brick red color of the moon during totality.
According to NASA, the eclipse is slated to begin in the eastern time zone at 10:33 p.m., when the moon enters the umbra, which is the inner shadow of the earth, which covers the moon during an eclipse.
The moon will be completely inside the umbra at 11:41 p.m., and will remain there until 12:43 a.m., when it will begin its journey out of totality. The eclipse will end at 2:48 a.m.
While it’s too soon to tell if cloudy skies will ruin eclipse viewing, one meteorological factor seems likely: it will be frigid.
As of Thursday evening, the East End weather report for Sunday into Monday called for a chance of snow and sleet before 7 p.m., with mostly cloudy skies and a low around 11 degrees at night. Monday is expected to be mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 18 degrees.
Here are some useful tips from camera manufacturer Nikon on photographing a lunar eclipse.
The Montauk Observatory is holding a lecture on “Celestial Shadows: The January 2019 Lunar Eclipse” Friday evening, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum. The Custer Institute Observatory in Southold is scheduled open at 7 p.m. on Sunday for viewing of the eclipse.
