'Super Blood Wolf Moon' to light up sky on Sunday

NEW YORK: "Super Blood Wolf Moon", a total lunar eclipse, will take a star turn across the United States  on Sunday night.

Total lunar eclipses happens when the moon moves into perfect alignment with the sun and earth, giving it a  "blood" appearance to those watching from below.

A "super" moon occurs when the moon is especially close to earth, while a "wolf moon" is the traditional name for the full moon of January, when the howling of wolves was a sound that helped define winter, according to The Farmers Almanac.

In a total lunar eclipse, the moon never goes completely dark. Rather, it takes on a reddish glow from refracted light as the heavenly bodies move into position - hence the "blood moon" moniker. The more particulate or pollution in the atmosphere, the redder the moon appears.

The total eclipse, that will start minutes before midnight on the East Coast (0500 GMT) and just before 9 pm in the West, will unfold on the day before Martin Luther King Jr Day.

It  will last for about an hour, and the best viewing is from North and South America, according to National Geographic. Partial eclipses leading up to and following the total eclipse mean the entire event will last 3.5 hours.

The York County Astronomical Society has invited the public to peer through its observatory's telescopes for a close-up look In Pennsylvania. while extremely large crowds are expected  in Los Angeles, some  website will live-stream a telescopic view of the eclipse. While, some astronomy clubs are throwing parties.

As many as 2.8 billion people are expected to see this weekend's eclipse from the Western Hemisphere, Europe, West Africa and northernmost Russia, according to some news websites.

If skies are clear, the phenomenon can be seen with the naked eye and no protection is needed to safely enjoy the view, Griffith Observatory said.