Total Lunar Eclipse: A Rare “Blood Moon”

Submitted by the Event Organizer

The first Blood Moon eclipse in a series of four is coming up on the night of April 14-15, 2014.

This total eclipse of the moon will be visible from the Americas including San Francisco as long as the fog stays away.

Total Lunar Eclipse
Late Night April 14 / Early Morning April 15

Partial umbral eclipse begins: 10:58 p.m. PDT on April 14
Total eclipse begins: 12:07 a.m. PDT on April 15
>> Greatest eclipse: 12:46 a.m. PDT
Total eclipse ends: 1:25 a.m. PDT
Partial eclipse ends: 2:33 a.m. PDT

Please note that in our original posted we had listed the time of the eclipse in GMT instead of Pacific time.

The total part of the April 14-15 eclipse lasts nearly 1.3 hours. Oftentimes, the full moon appears coppery red during a total lunar eclipse because the dispersed light from all the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets falls on the face of the moon.

A partial umbral eclipse precedes totality by over an hour, and follows totality by over an hour, so the moon takes a little more than 3.5 hours to completely sweep through the Earth’s dark shadow. (Source: EarthSky)

What’s a Blood Moon? Astronomy had not heard the term Blood Moon used in quite this way before this year, but now the term is becoming widespread in the media. The origin of the term is religious, at least according to Christian pastor John Hagee, who wrote a 2013 book about Blood Moons. However, both astronomers and some proponents of Christian prophesy are talking about the upcoming lunar tetrad – a series of total lunar eclipses:

2014:

• Total lunar eclipse: April 14-15
• Total lunar eclipse: October 8

2015:

• Total lunar eclipse: April 4
• Total lunar eclipse: September 28

Source: EarthSky

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.