Tonight’s total lunar eclipse promises to be impressive, as long as the weather doesn’t cloud your view. While lunar eclipses happen several times each year, this one is rare because the Earth will cast its entire shadow on the full moon as it passes between the moon and the sun.

When the moon is covered by the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, it will dim and turn a coppery-red colour.

Why red? Any light from the sun has to pass through the Earth’s atmosphere in order to hit the moon. Due to the fact that our atmosphere scatters blue light the most, most of the light that makes it to the moon to be reflected back is red.

Tonight’s lunar eclipse kicks off a tedrad – a series of four total lunar eclipses over the next two years and it’ll be visible for about 1 hour 20 minutes. Over Vancouver Island, clouds will increase throughout the evening, but the sky shouldn’t be completely cloudy until after midnight. Hopefully you’ll catch a glimpse of the red spectacle!

According to www.dateandtime.com here’s what you’ll see tonight (all times local for Vancouver):

Event

Time in Vancouver

Direction

Altitude

Comments

Partial eclipse begins

Apr 14 at 10:59pm

145°

23.8°

Partial moon eclipse starts - moon is getting red.

Total Eclipse begins

Apr 15 at 12:08am

163°

28.5°

Total moon eclipse starts - completely red moon.

Maximum Eclipse

Apr 15 at 12:46am

173°

29.6°

Moon is closest to the center of the shadow.

Total Eclipse ends

Apr 15 at 1:23am

183°

29.7°

Total moon eclipse ends.

Partial Eclipse ends

Apr 15 at 2:32am

202°

27.2°

Partial moon eclipse ends.

If you miss tonight’s show, the next total lunar eclipses are October 8, April 4, and September 25. Send your photos of the blood moon to islandweather@ctv.ca. I’d love to see them!