Lunar Eclipse Starts at 5:18AM: The View from Nanuet

According to NASA, the full eclipse will start at 5:18 a.m. Oct. 8. It will be over by 7:24 a.m.

Trouble is, the local forecast isn’t so great, and the totality will be happening after sunrise, according to the National Weather Service.

For Nanuet the NWS calls for rain and thunderstorms after midnight Tuesday but Wednesday is supposed to be mostly sunny—So it all depends on how fast the wind blows the clouds away early Wednesday morning.

The second of the year’s four total lunar eclipses – creating what is often called a “ blood moon” – will occur just before sunrise Wednesday, Oct. 8.

The eclipse is the Northern Hemisphere’s hunter’s moon – the name for the full moon after the harvest moon, says EarthSky.org, and the show is often phenomenal.

During the sky-watching buzz leading up to the total lunar eclipse in April 2014, the term lunar tetrad was coined to name the four eclipses in a row, the organization says. Each eclipse is separated from the other by six lunar months (six full moons).

When to Watch

Early risers can catch the lunar eclipse as it begins around 5:18 a.m. in New York; the maximum eclipse should take place at 6:55 a.m. ET.

If you can’t see it in the sky due to sunrise, moonset, or clouds, watch on Space.com or through Slooh and NASA.

Why the Eerie Name?

According to EarthSky, a full moon almost always takes on a copper hue during a total lunar eclipse, caused by light dispersion from the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets.

“Thus the term blood moon can be and probably is applied to any and all total lunar eclipses,” EarthSky reports.

PHOTO: SCREENGRAB