Night sky watchers in the western United States are set to enjoy a “super flower blood moon” in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
As the moon enters the Earth’s shadow it will turn a blood red colour during a total lunar eclipse, the first time in two years that it can be seem from the US.
While the supermoon will be visible across the world, a partial eclipse will only be viewable in large parts of the US and eastern Americas, as well as regions of east Asia.
“Hawaii has the best seat in the house and then short of that will be California and the Pacific Northwest,” said NASA’s Noah Petro, project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Experts say that it will all begin at around 1.47am PST on 26 May, when onlookers from Southern California to Washington state will start to see subtle changes to the color of the moon.
After several hours of traveling into the earth’s shadow the moon will begin to turn red at around 2.45am PST.
As it continues to travel into the Earth’s inner shadow the full face of the moon will become a deep red, starting in the Los Angeles area at around 4.11am PST.
Because of the way the moon orbits the total eclipse will only last for an estimated 11 minutes and be complete by 4.25am PST.
Onlookers will then be able to watch the whole process in reverse as the moon leaves the Earth’s shadow before sunrise.
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Night sky watchers in the western United States are set to enjoy a “super flower blood moon ” in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
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