A full moon over the Hawaiian Islands is expected to fade to black or red for about an hour Saturday morning as it moves into the full shadow of the earth.
This total lunar eclipse will be the last such event for the next three years, and Hawaii looks like a lucky location for viewing.
Maybe not, if you’re superstitious.
"Generally, eclipses are regarded as really bad omens," said Michael P. Shanahan, director of education, exhibits and the planetarium at the Bishop Museum.
Shanahan said the sight of a blood-red moon was spellbinding but unsettling in some cultures.
But he calls the sight "pretty awesome."
The red color comes from the sun’s longer wavelengths extending through the Earth’s atmosphere to the moon, scientists say.
Viewing of this lunar eclipse could be more extraordinary than that of some in the past because the atmosphere is clearer than it was a couple of decades ago, said Chris Peterson, president of the Hawaiian Astronomical Society.
Peterson said big volcanic eruptions of the early 1990s, such as Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, left the Earth’s atmosphere with volcanic residue and darkened the moon’s eclipses.
"This one should be relatively bright," he said. "There hasn’t been any major volcanic eruptions in recent years."
The full moon will begin to move into the shadow of the Earth about 2:45 a.m. and the total phase of the eclipse will be from 4:05 a.m. to 4:55 a.m., Shanahan said.
Robert McLaren, associate director of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, said total lunar eclipses are infrequent because its orbit is at a tilt and usually above or below the shadow of the Earth.
"It has to do with timing," McLaren said.
The most recent total lunar eclipse was on June 15. But after Saturday’s, the next will be on April 15, 2014, scientists say.
Hawaiian Astronomical Society members haven’t scheduled any activities for the event Saturday, given the early hour.
"No one’s going to come out at 4 in the morning," Society member Barry Peckham said.
Peckham said viewing could be done with the naked eye from a backyard.
