The second and final “blood moon” total lunar eclipse of the year is coming tonight/Wednesday morning. The eclipse will start at 1:17 a.m. Wednesday, with the full eclipse beginning at 3:27 a.m. and ending at 6:32 Wednesday morning. Tonight’s eclipse is the second in a series of four total lunar eclipses. The first was April 15, and the third and fourth will be April 4, 2015, and September 28, 2015. The lunar eclipse Wednesday morning occurs when the moon’s orbit is at its closest point to the Earth, making the moon appear more than 5 percent larger than the previous lunar eclipse in April. A tetrad of total lunar eclipses is extremely rare; the last series of four total lunar eclipses was more than 300 years ago. The Earth’s shadow will have a reddish tint to it because when light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, all the other colors are removed. The red shadow is reflected onto the moon’s surface giving it a red color and the name blood moon.
