Skywatchers across the continental U.S. will be treated to a total lunar eclipse overnight on Jan. 20-21, when Earth’s shadow sweeps over the lunar surface to give it a reddish tinge and turn it into what some call a “blood moon.”
This will be the first lunar eclipse of 2019 and the last total lunar eclipse until 2021. It coincides with the year’s first full moon — a “wolf moon” in the folklore tradition because it occurs at a time of year when wolves howl outside villages — and comes when the moon is slightly bigger and brighter because it’s at the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit.
Since it’s a so-called supermoon that’s being shadowed, some media outlets have dubbed this eclipse a “super blood wolf moon.”