Dallas Will See a Super Blood Wolf Moon Sunday, and the Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2021

Skywatchers won't want to miss this year's first full moon — a super blood wolf moon, as it's being called. It's the only total lunar eclipse for the next couple of years. The moon Sunday night will be the first in a series of three full supermoons, which is when a full or new moon is at or near its closest approach to earth in its orbit, or perigee, according to EarthSky.As it enters Earth's shadow, the moon will take red-orange color, hence the blood name, according to Space.com. The full moon in January has other names as well, but Native Americans and medieval Europeans gave it the wolf moniker "after the howling of hungry wolves lamenting the midwinter paucity of food," according to National Geographic. The eclipse is expected to last about three and a half hours from the start of the partial eclipse to finish and will be visible throughout North America, EarthSky says. The total eclipse begins at 10:41 p.m. and ends at 11:43 p.m. for the Central time zone. Dallas skywatchers can see the greatest point of the eclipse at 11:12 p.m."Once fully inside the [Earth's] shadow, the moon usually appears as a dull red color because if you were on the moon you'd simultaneously see all the red sunrises and sunsets on the Earth as sunlight bends through the Earth's atmosphere on its way to the moon," Rice University physics and astronomy professor Pat Hartigan said in a written statement.   Continue reading...