The reddish color of the super blood wolf moon lunar eclipse should look familiar. Like a sunrise or sunset, Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light leaving behind mostly red light that bends, or refracts, into Earth’s shadow and onto the Moon.
Raleigh, N. C. — Some are calling what we could see in the sky on Sunday night the super blood wolf moon lunar eclipse .
“Super” because the moon is near its closest point to the Earth in its orbit, a perigee-syzygy.
“Blood” because of the reddish hue it takes on during totality.
“Wolf” for the name given January’s full moon in recognition of hungry wolves displeased about mid-winter’s scarcity of food.
That reddish color should look familiar. Like a sunrise or sunset, Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light leaving behind mostly red light that bends, or refracts, into Earth’s shadow and onto the Moon. Another way to look at it is that we are seeing all of Earth’s sunsets and sunrises simultaneously cast onto Moon’s surface.
The Moon enters the penumbral, or lighter part, of the Earth’s shadow at 9:36 p.
