You've probably heard of lunar eclipses, as they tend to happen a bit more frequently, but what exactly does the moon do during one? Krista Testin at the UNO Mallory Kountze planetarium gives a great explanation.
"For this one being a total lunar eclipse, it will go into the darker parts of the earth's shadow and actually make the moon appear orange-ish red," Testin explains.
We usually see a lunar eclipse in year to year and a half cycles, even though it only takes about a month for the moon to orbit Earth.
"Doesn't happen every month, sometimes this moon is higher or lower so the light from the sun can go around planet earth," Testin says.
Did you keep your eclipse glasses from the 2017 solar eclipse? If you did, cool. If not, don't worry about it! You won't need them for this one, because it's safe to look at the moon during Sunday night's lunar eclipse. You can see it with your own two eyes, but there are a couple of ways to see the spectacular sight even better.
"Things that you might want to use to enhance your viewing: a simple pair of binoculars, a small telescope," Testin adds.
You'll start to notice the moon disappearing around 9:34 Sunday night and it begins the total eclipse phase at 10:41. at 11:12 it will reach its maximum and the partial eclipse comes to an end at 12:51, early Monday morning.
And hopefully the clouds cooperate. Otherwise, we will have to wait until the next North American lunar eclipse on July 4th of 2020.
The UNO Mallory Kountze Planetarium will be hosting a lunar eclipse viewing event Sunday evening that will be open to the public. It runs from 8:30 pm to midnight. They will have some activities to do and have binoculars and telescopes for you to use.
