“Blood Moon” is a silly term, but lunar eclipses are fun

Will you be able to see the total lunar eclipse tomorrow? “Blood Moon” is a silly media term – the moon will look more rusty or even gray – coppery at its best. But still fun to see.

The best view is from the Pacific Ocean. If you insist on a large landmass, in eastern Australia or western US and Canada the moon rises or sets at totality. There will also be webcasts, watch the total lunar eclipse webcast on Space.com or the online Slooh community observatory at slooh.com.

“It’s no surprise that this lunar eclipse is coming so close on the heels of a solar eclipse. Solar eclipses can occur only when the moon is at a “node” in its orbit. (The nodes are the two points where the moon’s path on the sky crosses the sun’s path, which is called the ecliptic.)

“During the March 20 solar eclipse, the moon crossed the ecliptic from north to south and cast its shadow on the Earth. On Saturday, a half orbit later, the moon will cross the opposite node from south to north, becoming engulfed in Earth’s shadow.”

You may wonder why there isn’t an eclipse every month. Well, orbits aren’t perfect circles and planets and moons don’t lie perfectly in the same solar system plane. The cosmos ignores our human obsession with ‘neat and tidy’.

More at space.com