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Total Lunar Eclipse Comes With a Super Flower Blood Moon This Wednesday

Skywatchers are going to get spoiled this Wednesday, May 26th, with not one, not two, but three astronomical events that will unfold on the night sky. So, get your cameras ready and prepare for the rare celestial show!
NASA telescopic visualization of the 2021 total lunar eclipse 1 photo
Photo: NASA’s Scientifc Visualization Studio
Just a month ago, we witnessed a Super Pink Moon shine brightly on the night sky across North America and Europe. For those of you who might not know, a supermoon is a full or new Moon that occurs when a satellite is at 90 percent of its perigee or closest approach to Earth, and they are the year's largest and brightest events.

Compared to April's supermoon, this one will have its closest approach to Earth, making it the biggest full Moon of the year (about seven percent larger than average). This celestial event takes the name of Flower Moon to indicate the blooming flowers in the Northern Hemisphere during this time of the month.

What makes this occurrence unique is that it will coincide with a total lunar eclipse for the first time in nearly six years. The supermoon will pass through the Earth's dark shadow, known as the umbra, and will gradually darken during this sort of eclipse, taking on a rusty or blood-red hue. This is why it will also be called a Blood Moon.

Near moonset, the total eclipse will be visible to the stargazers located in the western United States and Canada, all of Mexico, most Central America and Ecuador, western Peru, southern Chile, and Argentina. Those from eastern Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, will also be able to witness the event.

The eclipse will begin at 1:46 a.m. PDT, and the Moon will enter Earth's umbra at 2:45 a.m. Totality – when the entire surface of the Moon is obscured by the Earth's shadow – will last only 15 minutes between 4:11 and 4:26 a.m. before the Moon begins to emerge from the central shadow. Unlike with a solar eclipse, you can look directly at the event without any special glasses.
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About the author: Florina Spînu
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Florina taught herself how to drive in a Daewoo Tico (a rebadged Suzuki Alto kei car) but her first "real car" was a VW Golf. When she’s not writing about cars, drones or aircraft, Florina likes to read anything related to space exploration and take pictures in the middle of nature.
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