Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse: 'No-Miss Opportunity' In FL

SARASOTA, FL — Remember the last time you got up in the middle of the night to catch a glimpse of a rare celestial occurrence only to climb back into bed five minutes later feeling like you had no idea what all the fuss was about? Sunday’s Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse won’t be anything like that.

“This is a no-miss opportunity,” assured South Florida Museum's Chief Astronomer Jeff Rodgers ahead of the unusual event when a supermoon turns red before our eyes. “This is America’s lunar eclipse. We’re safe in Florida and were safe across the U.S.”

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Early Native American tribes called the January full moon the “wolf moon” because it was the time of year when hungry wolves howled near their camps. However, the Farmers’ Almanac notes that the notion of wolves howling at a full moon is “known to be more folklore than fact.”

The supermoon is a recently popularized term describing the phenomenon that occurs when a full moon coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth, or perigee — making it appear larger than usual.

Unlike the total solar eclipse we experienced in August 2017, there is no special eye protection needed to view the Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse. We will be able to see it anywhere in the country where the moon is visible, according to Rodgers.

"They’re something that everybody can see without a telescope, no binoculars," he explained. "It’s a naked-eye event. It’s good for everybody."

Unless of course, it’s very cloudy where you are — or raining, or snowing — and you can’t see the moon at all. In Florida, at least, we won't have to worry about the snow.

“Let’s just hope for clear skies,” Rogers told Patch. "The only thing that will prevent you from seeing this will be cloudy skies."

Weather Outlook Across Florida

Here's the weather outlook across Florida:

In Miami, the National Weather Service is calling for Sunday night to be mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming clear. It will be partly cloudy in Key West and mostly cloudy in Naples,

Fort Myers will be mostly clear as will Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Sarasota and Bradenton will be partly cloudy but Lakeland will be mostly clear.

Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Panama City and Pensacola will be clear Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Total Lunar Eclipse

If you miss Sunday's total lunar eclipse you won't get another chance until 2021.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the sun and the moon, blocking the sunlight normally reflected by the moon, NASA explains.

Totality in the eastern time zone will be reached 12 minutes past midnight, making it early Monday morning. But the totality begins on Sunday night around 11:41 p.m.

"It’s about an hour, where you get to see this deep red shadow moving across the moon towards totality and then moving away from it," said Rodgers.

Lunar eclipses that occur during supermoons are rare, making this one extra special because it comes almost a year after the Jan. 31, 2018, super blood moon — also a blue moon, because it was the second full moon (and supermoon) of the month.

Having two full moon blood moons in back-to-back years is an oddity, NASA planetary scientist Rick Elphic told Time magazine.

“It’s usually years between lunar eclipses that have supermoons in them,” Elphic said. “We just happen to be in a seasonal cycle where last year there was one and then this year, there is one and I don’t think there will be another supermoon eclipse for a while.”

Why does the moon turn red?

"Because light from the sun is bent by our atmosphere," Rodgers explained. "The sun's visible light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow. The blue light gets scattered by the molecules of gas in the air — that's why the sky looks blue. The red light passes through, but gets bent a bit, focusing it into the shadow region we call the umbra and casting a reddish glow onto the moon's surface."

Rodgers said there's no need to leave your backyard to catch the phenomenon. But you may want to invite a few friends over.

"You don’t have to worry about light pollution or street lights," Rodgers added. "This event is so big, so bright and the reddishness of the moon, you’ll be able to pick that up wherever you are."

Photo courtesy NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory