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Early risers can watch Election Day lunar eclipse

The reddish hue during the December 2010 total lunar eclipse.
Chris Hondros
/
Getty Images
The reddish hue during the December 2010 total lunar eclipse.

A total lunar eclipse will be visible very early tomorrow morning. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, skywatchers in Arizona have prime viewing of the event from start to end.

The Earth’s shadow will begin to darken the moon around 2 am Mountain Standard Time. Totality, when the moon’s entire surface turns a blood red, occurs at 3:16 in the morning and will last for an hour and a half. Then the shadow slides away, leaving the moon’s surface just before 6am.

The show ends not long before sunrise when the moon is setting in the west. Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory will host a three-hour virtual viewing of the eclipse on its YouTube channel.

It’s the last chance to see a total lunar eclipse anywhere in the world until 2025. It’s also the first time a lunar eclipse has fallen on Election Day in the history of the United States government.

Melissa joined KNAU's team in 2015 to report on science, health, and the environment. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR and been featured on Science Friday. She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where she fell in love with the ecology and geology of the Sonoran desert.