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There's another blood moon gracing our skies tonight, but if you are not careful you might miss it!Astronomers are calling tonight's total lunar eclipse the shortest one this century, as the totality will last only five minutes. The reason for this is because the moon will be passing through the top part of Earth's shadow as opposed to the wider, middle portion. The event begins at 3:16 a.m., early Saturday morning, with the totality coming and going beginning at 4:58 a.m. The 'blood' red color of the total lunar eclipses comes from the light of all the sunsets and sunrises on the edge of the Earth's shadow.
It's the weekend, baby, so we all know you'll be up anyway!
However, you're out of luck if you felt like going to the Griffith Observatory to catch the astronomical glory. Only journalists will be allowed up later tonight, since it's way past everybody's bedtime. "This one begins several hours after the park and observatory are closed," a spokeswoman for the observatory told L.A. Weekly.
Don't worry, though, we're in the middle of a banner crop of lunar eclipses, as the L.A. Times points out. We had two last year (in April and October), and there'll be another one on September 27 later in the year. And that one is during normal business hours at Griffith Observatory.
Play us out, Nick Drake:
