This week, those who enjoy the simple but effective practice of looking up will be rewarded with a true treat for the eyes.
As you may have heard, Wednesday brings with it the appearance of what’s widely referred to as the Super Flower Blood Moon. The event marks the first total lunar eclipse to occur with a supermoon (more on that later) in almost six years, meaning this spectacle of space is more than worth the minimal effort required to witness it.
Below, we’ve compiled a quick guide on the Super Flower Blood Moon, including info on how best to get a glimpse in your area.
Across a period of several hours on May 26, the moon will pass through our planet’s shadow, which results in the moon being darkened and typically made reddish in color. The red, notably, occurs due to the sunlight that’s being filtered through our planet’s atmosphere. The reddish color is also why lunar eclipses are often referred to as “blood moons.”
As for the “super” in Super Flower Blood Moon, the moon is called a “supermoon” when it’s at its closest point to Earth in its orbit. In the case of this total lunar eclipse, the moon will be near that point. As NASA explained in a recent blog, the “Flower Moon” distinction comes from early Native American tribes due to the full moon occurring at a time when spring flowers “appeared in abundance.”
The Super Flower Blood Moon marks the first total lunar eclipse to occur with a supermoon in nearly six years. A total lunar eclipse, per NASA, won’t occur over North American again until May of next year.
Furthermore, the Super Flower Blood Moon is slated to go down as the closest and largest full moon of 2021. And unlike what’s required during solar eclipse festivities, you won’t have to worry about rocking a pair of special glasses to get a safe look.
While the supermoon aspect will be visible to anyone who’s fortunate enough to have clear skies on May 26, the total lunar eclipse (the “Blood” part) is a bit more region-specific.
“Folks in Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands will get to see the entirety of this eclipse—it will be quite a show for them,” Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office promised earlier this month.
The eclipse will begin May 26 at 4:46 a.m. ET. The moon will enter the darkest part of our planet’s shadow at 5:45 a.m. ET. To get a possible look at what’s called “totality,” i.e. the period of time during which the moon’s surface is covered by the Earth’s shadow, it’s advised to look up to the sky between 7:11 and 7:26 a.m. ET.
For more specifics on the total eclipse phase, consult this breakdown by Lance D. Davis from NASA:
“The total eclipse phase will be visible near moonset in the western United States and Canada, all of Mexico, most of Central America and Ecuador, western Peru, and southern Chile and Argentina. The eclipse can be seen in its entirety in eastern Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii.”
NASA also shared the following map showing the global visibility of the lunar eclipse:
For a simpler (and perhaps more effective) way of catching the Super Flower Blood Moon experience, several livestreams will be available, including from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles (see above) as well as Time and Date:
