Get up early Friday to see the longest lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years

A near-total lunar eclipse is coming successful the wee hours of adjacent Friday, 1 that astronomers accidental volition beryllium the longest successful duration successful 581 years.

At its maximum, which volition hap successful Denver astatine 2:02 a.m., lone 3% of the satellite volition beryllium illuminated according to timeanddate.com, a website that tracks movements of the prima and the moon. The satellite volition statesman to walk into earth’s penumbra (half shadow) astatine 11:02 p.m. Thursday and the partial eclipse volition statesman astatine 12:18 a.m. connected Friday. The partial eclipse volition extremity astatine 3:47 a.m., and the penumbral eclipse volition extremity astatine 5:03 a.m.

The satellite volition beryllium afloat and volition look successful the confederate and occidental entity crossed those hours.

The crushed the lawsuit volition past truthful agelong — conscionable implicit six hours — is due to the fact that the satellite is adjacent apogee, which is its farthest constituent from earth. It’s the other of perigee (closest to earth), which is what gives america alleged “super moons.”

During this year’s ace satellite successful May, for example, the satellite was 222,000 miles away. That lawsuit coincided with a full lunar eclipse implicit the occidental skyline soon earlier sunrise connected May 26. During this eclipse the satellite volition beryllium much than 252,000 miles away.

“The farther distant the satellite is, the slower it travels on its orbit, which means it takes longer to walk done earth’s shadow,” according to a station connected timeanddate.com. The adjacent 1 this agelong volition hap successful the twelvemonth 2669.

Subscribe to our play newsletter, The Adventurist, to get outdoors quality sent consecutive to your inbox.