Lunar Eclipse 2022: Blood Red Supermoon Due Over Wisconsin

WISCONSIN — The lunar eclipse due over Wisconsin on Sunday has the potential of becoming a blood red full flower moon and also a supermoon, depending on who you ask.

The moon will possibly turn blood red during the first of two lunar eclipses this year, according to NASA. This is also a "supermoon" event, an optical illusion where it looks bigger in the night sky.

Stargazers may be on edge watching the weather forecast as the National Weather Service reported a 40 percent chance of rain in the Milwaukee area on Sunday night.

Luckily, the Badger State is close enough to the eastern half of the U.S. that will be able to see the lunar eclipse at every stage, NASA said. South America will be able to see all of the stages, but people in other parts of the U.S. will be able to see totality but not all stages.

This celestial event hasn't been seen over the U.S. since the turn of the decade, AccuWeather reported. The total eclipse may be the top astronomy event of 2022.

Here's what to expect in Wisconsin.

Moonrise over Milwaukee is 7:54 p.m. and the moon will be its fullest at 11:14 p.m., according to Timeanddate.com.

The partial eclipse starts at 9:59 p.m., according to NASA's projection. The face of the moon will get gradually darker until totality peaks at 11:11 p.m. Sunday. Totality will last about 1 hour and 25 minutes, and the eclipse is over at 12:55 a.m. Monday The moon will continue to shine until dawn, setting at 5:39 a.m. Monday.

Are you in a region with inclement weather? NASA will livestream the lunar event.

Lunar Eclipses, "Blood Moon": What To Know

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

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 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.

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.

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