Get Ready for the Supermoon Eclipse

[Voiceover] This Sunday evening, the moon will pass

behind the center of Earth's shadow and turn a rusty red.

This is a total lunar eclipse

and while it's not quite

as blindingly impressive as a total solar eclipse,

this one is still pretty spectacular.

This will be the last in the series of four total

lunar eclipses that have occurred in the last two years,

a rare event called a tetrad.

And this lunar event will also occur during a supermoon,

when the moon passes closest to the earth's surface.

The last time a supermoon eclipse happened was in 1982,

and it won't happen again until 2033.

During a total lunar eclipse, the moon appears red

because of a quirk of Earth's atmosphere.

The moon doesn't totally disappear because while Earth

blocks most of the sun light, some trickles around

the edges of the planet.

That light gets filtered through the Earth's atmosphere,

which only let's through light with longer wavelengths,

that is, red light.

So when you look up to the sky on Sunday,

prepare for something pretty special.

The moon will start to pass through the Earth's dark

umbra shadow around 9:00 PM Eastern Time,

and it'll be completely shaded for about an hour,

starting around 10:00.

That means the eclipsed moon will just be rising

as viewers on the west coast tune in.

Keep an eye to the skies.