Total Lunar Eclipse Tuesday Morning

Via azstarnet.com -

To enjoy the spectacular total eclipse of the moon Tuesday morning, you need a plan.

You may want to go to bed early Monday and rise to watch the show — beginning after midnight and continuing until dawn. Of course, you may want to stay up late, then sleep in.

Total lunar eclipses always occur at full moon when the moon is behind the Earth from the sun and the Earth's long shadow is cast upon the moon. The somewhat darkening phase begins a few minutes before 1 a.m. Tuesday.

At 1:51 a.m., the moon starts entering the Earth's umbra, which is the darkest part of a shadow. The moon gets progressively darker as it moves deeper into the umbra and becomes fully eclipsed at 2:52 a.m. Theoretically, the moon should disappear from sight during totality because it is completely buried in the Earth's shadow. That rarely happens. Instead, the moon becomes a gorgeous copper color.

The moon starts to leave totality at 4:22 a.m. and fully leaves the umbral shadow at 5:24 a.m. Because of twilight, the sky will start brightening between 4:30 and 5 a.m., lessening the beauty of the last part of the eclipse.

So grab a lawn chair and get ready to enjoy the show.