A supermoon in combination with a lunar eclipse, happens, well, once in a blue moon.
In fact, the last time a supermoon eclipse happened was in 1982, with only five instances having been recorded since 1900, in the years 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982. For folks who miss out this celestial feat, the next supermoon eclipse is scheduled in 2033, reports Fox News.
A supermoon phenomenon occurs when a full moon or a new moon is closest to the earth.
"Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit. When the moon is farthest away it's known as apogee, and when it's closest it's known as perigee. On Sept. 27, we're going to have a perigee full moon - the closest full moon of the year. There's no physical difference in the moon. It just appears slightly bigger in the sky. It's not dramatic, but it does look larger," said Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The term 'supermoon' describes the moon at perigee, when it is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth than at apogee. The proximity makes the moon appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter in the sky than an apogee full moon.
Visible in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific, the supermoon eclipse will last 1 hour and 11 minutes, says NASA. Weather permitting, the supermoon will be visible after nightfall. The total eclipse starts at 10:11 p.m. ET, peaking at 10:47 p.m. ET.
A lunar eclipse is a spectacle to behold as the Earth's shadow covers the moon as the planet comes between the sun and the moon. Ancient civilizations thought them to be random occurrences, but today we can predict eclipses many years away as it is just a matter of knowing where Earth, the sun and the moon are at a given point in time.
Of a supermoon and a lunar eclipse occurring simultaneously, "It's just planetary dynamics. The orbit of the moon around Earth is inclined to the axis of Earth and the orbital plane of all these things just falls into place every once in a while. When the rhythms line up, you might get three to four eclipses in a row or a supermoon and an eclipse happening," said Petro, according to NASA.
NASA TV will be live streaming the supermoon lunar eclipse from 8:00 p.m. until at least 11:30 p.m. EDT from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with a live feed from the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, Calif. Star gazers can ask questions using the Twitter handle #askNASA . Mitzi Adams, a NASA solar physicist at Marshall will answer questions and discuss the eclipse.
If that doesn't work, you can watch the HNGN LIVE stream here.
If you manage to take pictures of this phenomenal event, email them to us at k.aquilina@hngn.com and we will posting them on our website.
Read more about supermoon eclipses here at HNGN.
