'Super Blue' Total Lunar Eclipse To Be Viewable Early Wednesday

BAY AREA, CA – A "super blue" total lunar eclipse will be viewable to residents of the Bay Area early Wednesday morning and is exciting NASA researchers, a retired professor and a NASA scientist said.

A partial eclipse will begin at 3:48 a.m. Pacific time and will become a total eclipse at 4:52 a.m., according to Andrew Fraknoi, a retired Foothill College astronomy professor.

The "super" in "super blue" means that the moon during its earthly orbit is closest to the earth while "blue" means it's the second full moon of the month.

The moon will take on a reddish tint during the eclipse, prompting some to call it a "blood" moon.

Fraknoi said that an eclipse occurring during a super blue moon is "pretty unusual."

The U.S. has not seen a blue moon eclipse in 152 years, he said. Another will occur in 2028.

Fraknoi emphasized that it's important for residents and visitors planning to watch the eclipse to find a place where it's not foggy and the western horizon is visible.

National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Anderson said it's expected to be clear in the morning across most of the Bay Area except in San Francisco, in the North Bay valleys and on the coast.

NASA scientists are excited about the eclipse because as the moon gets covered in the earth's shadow, the temperature on the surface of the moon will change, allowing them to gauge how hard or soft the surface is at
places no one has been before.

"That's the main thing we're going after," NASA planetary scientist Rick Elphic said.

Scientists are able to judge the hardness of surface material, whether in the American desert or on the moon, because materials with different hardness cool at different speeds.

Scientists will evaluate the hardness of material on the moon's surface from observatories on the earth and with reconnaissance spacecraft.

Elphic called the work "great science" and "interesting science" and also engineering because it will help scientists know, for example, where to land a NASA spacecraft.

The agency has a lunar mission planned for 2022 or 2023 to prospect for resources at the moon's poles.

Elphic said no one has been to the poles.

"It may be fluffier there," he said, adding that a lot of places especially at the poles haven't seen the sun in at least 2 billion years.

Fraknoi said unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse can be seen with the naked eye.

Bay Area residents and visitors can watch the eclipse from the flight deck of the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum docked off the coast of Alameda.

Museum visitors ages 6 and up can stay overnight on the aircraft carrier and get up to view the eclipse or visitors can arrive in the early morning hours to view it.

Overnight visitors should arrive between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Others should arrive between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.
The cost to stay overnight is $35 and reservations should be made as soon as possible.

The cost to simply view the eclipse at the USS Hornet is $15.

Museum officials will have 10 telescopes on deck for visitors. Visitors can bring their own equipment too.
People who choose to sleep on the USS will hear an announcement over the public address system at 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. to wake them up.

• ALSO SEE: Rise & Shine: Free Lunar-Eclipse Viewing Party - Foothill College

--Bay City News/Pixabay via BirgitKeil