Watch Lunar Eclipse, Century’s Longest, Turn Full Frost Moon Red

ACROSS AMERICA — Mark Thursday and Friday, Nov. 18-19, on your calendar. You may want to plan a lunar eclipse party to watch the full frost moon turn red. It’s an overnight party, so get your paid time-off requests in — you may not want to drag your tired self to work when the fun is over.

The upcoming event is a partial eclipse visible here and throughout North America. It's going to be impressive, lasting 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds.

That will make it the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century, according to NASA. And in practical terms, it’s almost a total eclipse.

Usually, light from the sun paints the face of the moon a grayish-white. But when the eclipse peaks around 4 a.m. Eastern Time on the 19th, our planet will block 98 percent of the sun’s light from reaching the moon’s surface, washing it in the reddish hue.

• Related: 2021 Guide To Meteor Showers And Other Celestial Events

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through Earth's partial shadow, or penumbra, and only a portion of it passes through the darkest shadow, or umbra. A total or nearly total lunar eclipse like this one often is called a “blood moon” for this reason.

The November full moon, with our without an eclipse, is also called the full frost moon, sometimes called a full beaver or dark moon. All were terms used by Native American tribes, who gave distinctive names to the moons to mark the season. The frost moon is the last full moon of autumn.

If it's cloudy where you are, or you just don't want to stay up late, you can watch it on a PBS livestream.

Although the eclipse lasts about 3½ hours from start to finish, most of the action takes place in a 2-hour span. People in all 50 states will be able to watch it. Here are the prime times, by time zone:

• Eastern: 2-4 a.m. Nov. 19
• Central: 1-3 a.m. Nov. 19
• Mountain: Midnight-2 a.m., Nov. 19
• Pacific: 11 p.m. Nov. 18-1 a.m. Nov. 19

You don’t need any special equipment to see it. All you need to do is walk outside and look up.

If it’s cloudy or inconvenient to stay up and watch the eclipse, you can watch a livestream of the lunar eclipse.

This month’s eclipse will be visible throughout most of North America, as well as eastern Russia, Japan, the Pacific Ocean, Mexico, Central America and parts of western South America.

Look Up For Meteors, Too

The long-running Taurid minor meteor shower produces only about five or 10 shooting stars an hour. It's unusual not only because of its duration — it started Sept. 7 and runs through Dec. 10 — but also because it consists of two distinct branches: the South Taurids, which peaked earlier this week, and the North Taurids, which peak Thursday and Friday.

The southern branch of the Taurid meteor shower is produced by the dust grains left behind Asteroid 2004 TG10, and the source of the northern branch is debris left behind by Comet 2P Encke. Both streams are rich in fireballs. The shooting stars appear to radiate from the constellation Taurus, but you'll be able to see them anywhere in the sky.

The Leonid meteor shower, produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle, runs annually from Nov. 6 to 30 and peaks overnight Nov. 16-17. The Leonids have a cyclonic peak about every 33 years, when hundreds of meteors an hour can be seen — as last happened in 2001 — but this will be an average year with about 15 shooting stars an hour at the peak.

The nearly full moon will be troublesome, but the Leonids are known for producing particularly bright shooting stars that even bright moonlight can't blot out. The meteors appear to originate from the constellation Leo.

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