How To See The Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse In Wisconsin On Sunday

WISCONSIN — A large portion of North America, including Wisconsin, will experience a total lunar eclipse Sunday night into Monday which will eventually turn May's full flower moon blood red.

Depending on who you ask, it will also be a supermoon. Seeing it for yourself, though, will depend on the weather, but we may be in luck as the National Weather Service forecast as of Monday calls for a 30 percent chance of rain, a low around 50 and partly cloudy skies Sunday night in Milwaukee.

Not everyone in the country will get the chance to see all three stages of the upcoming eclipse, but Wisconsin, like most of the eastern half of the United States, will be able to see the whole thing through, according to NASA. Other parts of the country will see totality, but not other phases, while South America will be able to see it all.

Here's what you can expect in Wisconsin:

Moonrise in Wisconsin will be around 7:54 p.m. on Sunday. It's worth taking a look at this because rising full moons are not just pretty, but some celestial experts are calling it a supermoon — more on that later though.

The partial eclipse will begin at 9:27 p.m. The moon at this point will start to get darker as the Earth moves between it and the sun, and the moon will start to appear red. The total eclipse will peak at 11:11 p.m., with totality lasting about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The total eclipse will end at 11:53 p.m., fading into a partial eclipse until eventually, the moon sees the sun again unobstructed by Earth by early Monday morning.

Lunar eclipses can only happen during a full moon, when the moon is opposite of the sun in its orbit of the Earth. Some call it a blood moon.

“Blood moon” is more of a term to describe the phenomenon rather than a strict 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 at 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.

Depending on the weather, the lunar eclipse will be worth it to stay up and 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.