Look To The Sky Saturday

Hey, you night sky watchers! A "Blood Moon" will occur this Saturday, April 4. This will be a total lunar eclipse and it will be the shortest one of the year, lasting about 10 minutes. It is set to begin just before 7 a.m., near sunrise.

This is the third of the four eclipses that take place in a lunar Tetrad. A Tetrad is four eclipses in a row occurring six months apart. The final eclipse of the series will be Sept. 28.

NASA officials report that the "Blood Moon" gets its name during the eclipse because the moon often looks reddish. This is because sunlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere, filtering out most of its blue light.

This is the second Tetrad of the century. The first was in 2003. There will be a total of eight this century. The next one will be 2032-33. Wow, that is a while to wait!!

On a side note, right now the planet Venus is pretty bright in the western sky through mid-evening. The planet Jupiter can be seen throughout the night and, if you have a telescope or a good pair of binoculars, you might be able to spot four of Jupiter's moons. Just pinpricks of light.