The "Blood Moon" Lunar Eclipse: When To See It In OH

A "supermoon" and total lunar eclipse will coincide Sunday in a rare celestial occurrence that will be visible across North America. Whether Ohioans can enjoy this spectacle — also known as a “blood moon” and a “wolf moon” — depends of course on the weekend's iffy weather.

As of Friday morning, the forecast isn't great, with the storm expected to continue until early Monday. But who knows? We might get lucky.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the sun and the full moon, blocking most of the sunlight normally reflected by the moon, NASA explains. But light rays filtered and bent by the earth's atmosphere fall on the moon's surface, giving it a dark red or copper color — hence the name of “blood moon.”

There’s no need to take special precautions to protect your eyes to view the total lunar eclipse, as you would during a solar eclipse.

On Sunday night, start watching the skies about 10:30 p.m. EST, when the earth’s shadow will begin passing in front of the moon from the lower left. Totality begins at about 11:41 p.m. and continues for about an hour, until 12:43 a.m. Monday, when the moon returns to its normal appearance.

"Normal," though, is in the eye of the beholder in this case. Because it’s a supermoon — a recently popularized term describing when a full moon coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth, or perigee — it will appear larger than normal.

Lunar eclipses that occur during supermoons are rare. This one is extra-special because it comes almost a year after the Jan. 31, 2018, super blood moon.

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.”

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.”

Some cultures refer to the first moon after Christmas as the “moon after yule.”

Photo: NASA Ames Research Center / Brian Day