Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse In IL: See Sunday's Forecast For Chicago Area

ILLINOIS — Illinois residents hoping to get their first look at the first of two total lunar eclipses this coming weekend should encounter decent weather on Sunday evening when the full flower moon will be transformed into a blood-red moon. Some experts refer to the occurrence as a supermoon, but that —according to many – is up for interpretation.

Experts say that local weather conditions factor greatly into whether Illinoisans will actually be able to see this stellar lunar event. After a warm and humid week here in the greater Chicago area, temperatures are expected to become milder this weekend, including on Sunday when partly sunny skies may be interrupted by about a 40 percent chance of rain. Temperatures are expected to hover in the upper 60s before things turn slightly cloudy with an overnight low of 55 moving into Monday, forecasters said.

Regardless of the weather, however, not everybody will be lucky enough to witness all three stages of the eclipse, experts said. NASA officials maintain that people living in the eastern portion of the United States and anyone living in South America will see every stage of the lunar eclipse. However, people in other parts of the U.S. —Illinois included — will see totality but will miss other phases.

Here’s what you can expect in Illinois:

Moonrise is around 7:50 p.m. CST on Sunday. It’s worth taking a look because 1) rising full moons are pretty and 2) some celestial experts call it a supermoon (a bit more about that later).

The eclipse starts of the moon will start around 8:32 p.m. on Sunday and then move to a partial eclipse around 9:27 p.m., according to the Adler Planetarium. Totality is set to start at 10:29 p.m. and end at 11:53 p.m, Adler officials said. The partial lunar eclipse will then end at 12:55 a.m. on Monday.

"A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon is fully engulfed by the Earth’s shadow," the Adler Planetarium officials wrote on its website. "Once totality begins, the Moon can appear reddish due to our atmosphere scattering away from the bluer rays of the Sun’s light, just like the Sun appears reddish right before sunset."

The eerie shift in color is not due to a transformation of the moon during the astronomical alignment, but rather a change in the light reflecting off the moon, NASA officials said recently.

"During a lunar eclipse, the moon turns red because the only sunlight reaching the moon passes through Earth’s atmosphere," NASA explained.
"The more dust or clouds in Earth’s atmosphere during the eclipse, the redder the Moon will appear," NASA added. This dust could come from a variety of sources, such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions.

Lunar eclipses only happen during a full moon, when the moon is opposite the sun in its orbit of Earth. In a total lunar eclipse, the sun fully illuminates the face of the moon. During an eclipse, the entire moon enters the darkest part of Earth’s shadow.

Related: Image of Supermassive Black Hole In Milky Way Galaxy Released

In a penumbral eclipse, the moon passes through the outer part of Earth’s shadow, only slightly dimming the surface of the moon. In a partial eclipse, the moon enters Earth’s darkest shadow, the umbra, causing some of the moon to darken significantly.

“Blood moon” is a descriptive rather than technical astronomical term, though The Old Farmer’s Almanac says the phrase is “hyped” and that a fully eclipsed moon is orange, or copper-colored like a penny, but not blood red. The moon’s color in totality can also vary depending upon the amount of dust, volcanic ash, or other particulate matter in the atmosphere, and because of cloud cover, according to Space.com.

Weather permitting, the lunar eclipse is worth staying up late to watch, even if it isn’t a supermoon.

"Supermoon" isn’t an astronomical term either, but rather one coined by astrologer Richard Nolle, who calls a full or new moon a supermoon when it is at 90 percent of its closest point, or perigee, to Earth. Under Nolle’s definition, four full moons meet supermoon criteria: a new or “stealth” moon on Jan. 14, full moons on June 14 and July 13, and a new moon on Dec. 23.

However, Fred Espenak, a retired NASA astrophysicist who worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center, uses slightly different criteria. He says the May Flower moon is the first of four supermoons in 2022. He also counts the June 14 and July 13 full moons as supermoons. Unlike Nolle, Espenak says the Aug. 12 full moon will be a supermoon (bad news for Perseids meteor shower fans, because the supermoon and the peak of the summertime favorite coincide).

Related: 2022 Guide To Meteor Showers, Lunar Eclipses, Supermoons

Either way, a supermoon isn’t bigger, and it doesn’t even look that much bigger in the sky when compared to a normal full moon. While it can look larger when it’s close to the horizon, that’s due to “the circuitry in your brain,” according to Universe Today which explained, “it’s an optical illusion … so well known that it has its own name: Moon illusion.”

Although most often called the full flower moon, the May full moon is also known as the corn planting moon and the milk moon in the United States. In Asia, it is known as the Vesak Festival Moon because it corresponds with Buddha Jayanti or Buddha Purnima, a Buddhist holiday that marks the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha.

The actual date of the Vesak festival depends on the calendar used in different countries and regions but generally falls on or near the day of the May full moon.

If you miss the eclipse this month, the second 2022 total lunar eclipse on Nov. 8 will be visible across the Americas, Oceania, and Asia.