Total Lunar Eclipse, “Blood Moon”

Skywatchers will be treated to a stunning occurrence that occurs every 1.5 years or so on the night of May 15, 2022, and into the early hours of May 16, 2022.

When the Moon and the Sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, the planet casts a complete shadow, or umbra, over its solitary natural satellite, total lunar eclipses occur. Each year, there may be several partial lunar eclipses, but total eclipses are uncommon. Best of all, unlike the measures required to safely see a total solar eclipse, observing a lunar eclipse with the naked eye is absolutely safe. Nonetheless, binoculars or a good telescope can significantly improve the experience.

On May 15, at 9:28 p.m. Central Daylight Time (10:28 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 7:28 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time), a partial eclipse will commence over North America. At 10:29 p.m. CDT (11:29 p.m. EDT, 8:29 p.m. PDT), totality will begin and end around midnight. The partial phase will expire roughly 2 1/2 hours after totality on May 16 at 12:56 a.m. CDT.

Because this was the time of year when spring flowers bloomed in abundance, early Native American tribes dubbed this full Moon the Flower Moon.

Mitzi Adams and Alphonse Sterling, both astronomers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are especially looking forward to seeing the lunar eclipse. One of the most recent such incidents they documented was in January 2018, when the eclipse was low on the horizon and partially obscured by trees and buildings during totality.

The Moon as seen during the total lunar eclipse in May 2022. Annotations of the contact timings and eclipse data are included. The complete lunar eclipse of May 16, 2022 (the night of May 15 in the Western Hemisphere) occurs at perigee, magnifying the Moon by around 7%. The eclipse is visible from much of the Western Hemisphere, including the Lower 48 states of the United States. In Africa and western Europe, the entire phase occurs near moonset. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio is to thank.

Then, in 2020-2021, the global COVID-19 epidemic put an end to eclipse watch parties.

“It’s fantastic to return to hosting astronomical society meetings in person, when sharing a telescope eyepiece is safer,” Adams says.