Blood Moon This Oct. 8, 2 More on 2015
A blood moon – as its called – is a total lunar eclipse where the moon turns reddish orange when it passes the Earth's shadow. Previously, the last blood moon occured April earlier this year but the blood moon which will make its appearance on Oct. 8 is reportedly going to be bigger than the previous one.
The eclipse will turn the moon into its reddish hue for about an hour between 6:25 a.m. EST through 7:24 a.m. EST according to NASA. Since this blood moon will be occurring after a perigee – the point where the moon is closest to the Earth – it will be the size of a super moon, some 5.3-percent bigger than the previous blood moon.
This blood moon will also be the second in a sequence of four – called a tetrad – which occurs in roughly six-month intervals. The next blood moon will be appearing on April 4, 2015 and the last one will be on September 28, 2015.
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Tetrads are generally a rare treat since most lunar eclipses are so subtle that they generally go unnoticed. Other eclipses are just partial shadows on the moon and don't give out the usual blood red color that only total eclipses do.
"The most unique thing about the 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of them are visible for all or parts of the U.S.A.," said Fred Espenak, NASA eclipse expert. Europe, Africa, and the Middle East won't be seeing Wednesday's blood moon.
NASA says that the 21st century will be seeing many tetrads unlike in previous centuries where Espenak mentions that before the 20th century there was a 300-year period where no blood moons occurred.
