麻豆影院

Step outside on Sunday night听and听be treated to a rare lunar event, dubbed the 鈥渟uper blood wolf eclipse.鈥�

The total lunar eclipse, when the moon turns a burnt orange to red color, will begin at 9:41 p.m. mountain time and last for about an hour. The听great thing about a lunar eclipse is听all you need are your eyes and maybe a good pair of binoculars, according to Paul Hayne, an assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at CU 麻豆影院.

What鈥檚 the best way to view the super blood wolf eclipse?

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need any special equipment to see a lunar eclipse,鈥� Hayne said.听鈥淚t won鈥檛 blind you. You can look at it with your naked eye. If you have a pair of binoculars, that鈥檚 even better. You鈥檒l get a very nice view of surface features on the moon.听Craters and the maurya, which are lava flows on the near side of the moon. And you鈥檒l see that nice red color as the moon goes into the total eclipse. If you have a backyard听telescope鈥攅ven better. You can start to make out details of craters and other smaller features on the surface of the moon.鈥�

Why the 鈥渟uper blood wolf eclipse鈥�?

鈥淭he super part of it is telling us that the moon is going to be super-sized," he said. 鈥淪o it鈥檒l be bigger in the sky than the moon normally is.听And the reason for that is the moon has an orbit around the Earth that brings it closer to and away from the Earth at different times in its orbit. And so this eclipse happens to occur during the point in the moon鈥檚 orbit when it鈥檚 closest to the Earth.鈥�

He says the blood name is due to the moon glowing red at total eclipse. And that鈥檚 because the only light the moon gets is from sunlight reflecting off the Earth and the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.

鈥淒uring a total lunar eclipse, the moon appears red and that鈥檚 because the light is being refracted through the atmosphere of Earth. The same reason that a sunset appears red, which is that the light is scattered through the听atmosphere of Earth causes the light hitting the moon during the total lunar eclipse to also appear red,鈥澨齢e said.

When it comes to the 鈥榳olf moon,鈥� Hayne says, according to folklore when a full moon appeared in January, wolves howled outside the villages in hunger.

鈥淭he wolf part of it is related to the mythology around a full moon during January. And the idea is that in ancient times, when you had a full moon during January鈥攖he coldest part of the year鈥攖he wolves would gather outside the village and howl at the full moon.听That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 called a wolf moon. So we鈥檝e got the super blood wolf moon.鈥�

When can we see another total lunar eclipse?

Don鈥檛 miss it, because this will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2021.