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How To See Flower Full Moon, Blood Moon, Total Lunar Eclipse Sunday Night In Philadelphia Region

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Sunday night's full moon, also known as the "Flower Moon," will be part of a total lunar eclipse. This eclipse will also cast the moon in a deep red shadow known as a "Blood Moon."

All you have to do to see this unique celestial event is step outside and look at the sky on Sunday night. The deepest red shade will take place before, during and after the maximum eclipse.

The entire eclipse will take just over three and a half hours. The totality when the moon is completely in Earth's shadow will last just over 84 minutes.

To see the moon's impressive change to a red color, it is recommended to begin watching just before the phase when the full eclipse begins at 11:29 p.m. and continue viewing through the maximum eclipse at 12:11 a.m.

Here is the eclipse timing in Philadelphia:

  • Partial eclipse begins at 10:27 p.m. Sunday
  • Full eclipse begins at 11:29 p.m. Sunday (Red color develops)
  • Maximum eclipse is at 12:11 a.m. Monday (Deepest red color)
  • Full eclipse ends at 12:53 a.m. Monday (Red color decreases)
  • Partial eclipse ends at 1:55 a.m. Monday

This will be the first of two total lunar eclipses this year with the second one occurring on Nov. 8, 2022. Sunday night's eclipse will be visible across all of North America, weather permitting.

eclipse
Image credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

Here in Philadelphia, we are expecting partly cloudy skies.

The blood moon color is caused when the moon is covered by the Earth's shadow. The colors will always be more vibrant with higher levels of pollutants in the air.

A total lunar eclipse is only possible when the sun, Earth and moon are in a straight line. When this occurs, the moon is always full.

While a lunar eclipse is visible across whole continents or hemispheres the same is not true of a total solar eclipse, which is only visible along narrow paths over parts of the globe.

Another difference is based on alignment. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is between the sun and moon, casting a shadow over the moon. A total solar eclipse is very rare and takes place when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun completely blocking the sun from view.

The next total solar eclipse visible in the United States will take place on Monday, April 8, 2024. It will be seen in a large swath stretching from Texas to New England.

It will be less than totality visible here in Philadelphia. If you want to see the full and spectacular totality, head to the northwest corner of Pennsylvania or northeastern Ohio.

Following that eclipse, the next total solar eclipse in the U.S. will be in 2044 in a narrow band across the far Northern Rockies or until 2045 for a swath running across the southern United States.

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