Sunday's Lunar Eclipse Has Got It All

Twitte

BREAKING NEWS FROM NPR

Maybe you've become inured of all the superlatives that get attached to sky-watching events. But the one on Sunday really is worth a look — it's the first total eclipse that's also a super moon and a blood moon in more than three decades.

As Sky & Telescope writes: "Observers in the eastern half of North America can watch every stage of the eclipse, from beginning to end of the partial phases (3 1⁄3 hours in all) during convenient hours of late twilight or darkness with the Moon mostly high in the sky. If you're in the Far West, the first partial stage of the eclipse is already in progress when the Moon rises (due east) around the time of sunset. Those in Europe and Africa see the eclipse on the local morning of the 28th."

Totality (when the moon is completely in Earth's shadow) arrives at 10:11 p.m. ET for those in the country's East, or 9:11 p.m. CT for those in the Midwest.

To get the exact time of the eclipse for your location, the U.S. Naval Observatory's page has a handy calculator.

An Oct. 8, 2014, photo shows the blood moon, created by the full moon passing into the shadow of Earth during a total lunar eclipse, as seen from Monterey Park, Calif. Sky watchers will get a chance to see another "blood moon" eclipse on Sunday.

Nick Ut/AP