The moon appeared coppery red Wednesday morning, just before sunrise in the Eastern Time Zone, and in the middle of the night on West Coast. It was the final visit this year by the so-called "blood moon" phenomenon, which was first seen April of this year.
According to the US Naval Observatory, this year's last total lunar eclipse was calculated to last for about an hour and will end in Minnesota. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service in Chanhassen forecasted partly cloudy skies with temperature of about 40 degrees, which would cause the sun to come up just after the eclipse. Astronomers call it "Selenelion," an closely simultaneous sunrise and lunar eclipse. The Draconid meteor shower, expected to peak on October 8-9,2014, would also occur at this time. The blood moon will be completely visible only in the Western part of North America, the Hawaiian Islands, parts of Eastern Australia, New Zealand, eastern Asia, and most of Japan.
A lunar eclipse happens when the full moon passes through the Earth's shadow, called the "umbra" The moon turns a rusty color as a result of the sun percolating the Earth's shadow.
October is the month of witnessing astonishing events in the sky since this total lunar eclipse is just the first installment of the series. A partial solar eclipse happening on October 23 will be observed in most of North america. Then comes the Comet Siding Spring set to fly through Mars on October 19, and the Orionid meteor shower anticipated to peak on October 21-22.
This month's total lunar eclipse is the second series of the 2014-2015 lunar "tetrad." According to NASA, there are only 142 tetrads from 2000 B.C. through the year 3000, nine of which will happen this century. It was even much more seldom in the past as there were no tetrads recorded from 1582 to 1908.
