Total Lunar Eclipse and Blood Moon 2022: How to Watch

Finally a good reason to stay up on Sunday night: A total lunar eclipse.

Lunar watchers throughout the United States can experience some heavenly wonder as Earth’s shadow covers the moon during prime viewing hours the night of May 15. Those on the East Coast can watch our natural satellite start to turn an eerie copper-red color at around 11:30 p.m. Eastern time during one of the longest lunar eclipses in recent memory.

“For pretty much all of North America, this is a tremendous viewing opportunity,” said Madhulika Guhathakurta, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Where and when can I watch the lunar eclipse?

The eclipse will be visible for a large portion of the world, including those in the Americas, much of Europe and Africa, and parts of the Pacific. Joseph Rao, an associate astronomer at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, estimates that some 2.7 billion people should be able to catch at least part of the eclipse.

Not long after sunset, the left-hand side of the moon should start appearing dusky. But the main event kicks off about 10:28 p.m. Eastern time, when the moon enters Earth’s central shadow, known as the umbra. At that time, it will begin to look like something has taken a bite out of the moon.

When the moon is about three-quarters of the way into the umbra, it should start lighting up with a reddish hue, “like your electric range just when the coils begin to glow,” Mr. Rao said.

At 11:29 p.m., the moon will be in the deepest portion of the Earth’s shadow and the total eclipse will begin in earnest. The eclipse will peak shortly after midnight, at roughly 12:12 a.m., and remain that copper color until after 1 a.m. The moon will leave the umbra at 1:56 a.m., regaining its pearlescent hue as the work week begins.

Viewers farther west won’t have to strain to stay up quite as late, with the most stunning views of the red moon beginning about 8:29 p.m. Pacific time, the peak occurring just before 9:12 p.m., and the total eclipse ending by 9:54 p.m. Observers in Hawaii will be able to see the moon rise looking like a reddish ball, Mr. Rao said, while those in Europe and Africa will view the opposite effect, watching the moon drop below the horizon during the total eclipse.

The quirks of celestial mechanics mean that totality — when the moon is blood red and in the deepest shadow — lasts longer than average, roughly 1 hour and 25 minutes, giving skywatchers ample opportunity to savor the event. This makes it the longest total lunar eclipse visible for much of the United States since August 1989, Mr. Rao said.

For people in New York, weather forecasters put the chance of rain at 30 percent for Sunday night and suggested that conditions could be mostly cloudy ahead of the eclipse’s totality.

If you’re clouded out by poor weather, or not in the path of the eclipse, or NASA will be livestreaming the event on its website. You can also watch it in the video player embedded above. The Slooh online telescope will be hosting another livestream as well.

What do I need to watch the eclipse?

No fancy equipment is needed to view the otherworldly spectacle. If the weather is clear, just look up…