Super blue blood moon offers a rare celestial treat

As the moon sets and the sun rises Wednesday morning, sky-gazers along the East Coast may catch a glimpse of a celestial trifecta called a super blue blood moon.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will offer live coverage starting at 5:30 a.m. of the lunar event, which will be a simultaneous combination of a supermoon, a blue moon and a lunar eclipse.

A supermoon, which is about 14 percent brighter than usual, happens when the moon is closer to Earth in its orbit. A blue moon, which actually is not blue, is the second full moon of the month. As the super blue moon passes through Earth’s shadow, it will take on a reddish tint and become a blood moon, NASA said in a press release.

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A total lunar eclipse is when the sun, Earth and moon line up nearly perfectly. NASA said the total phase of the eclipse will last just over an hour, while the whole process takes more than four hours.

The moon will enter the Earth’s shadow shortly before 6 a.m., but Gordon Johnston, program executive and lunar blogger at NASA headquarters in Washington, said in a press release that it will not be that noticeable.

Johnston said people along the East Coast have the best chance of catching the super blue blood moon at 6:45 a.m. from a high place with a clear view of the horizon in the west-northwest.

People in Alaska, Hawaii and along the West Coast will have the best view if skies are clear, NASA said.

NASA spokesperson Laurie Cantillo said the agency is working with NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona and the University of Hawaii to provide live feeds of the event from some of the best viewing spots.

"It's definitely going to be quite an experience," Cantillo said.

Ernest Wright of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said it's a little tricky to nail down exactly when the last blue moon and eclipse occurred at the same time.

"It depends on your definition of a blue moon," he said in an email. That's because in order to a be a blue moon, two full moon cycles must occur within the same calendar month, which can change depending on location and time zone.

Using Universal Time, the last blue moon eclipse was seen on Dec. 30, 1982, Wright said.

Using local time zones, the last blue moon eclipse was in 1866.

However, he said, the 1866 eclipse did not happen during a supermoon, but the 1982 eclipse did.

The last full lunar eclipse occurred in 2015, and it will be another year until the another total lunar eclipse can be seen from North America.

For more, go to moon.nasa.gov. To watch the live feed, go to NASA.gov/live.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.