WATCH LIVE: Paris, Munich Among Best Sites in Europe to View Supermoon Lunar Eclipse

By Kristina Pydynowski, senior meteorologist

September 27,2015; 9:30PM,EDT

 

 

The weather will provide sky gazers from Portugal to Poland with the best viewing conditions across the continent for Sunday night's rare supermoon lunar eclipse.
If the sky was clear, the majority of Europe would be treated to most or all of the eclipse during the second half of Sunday night. Eastern parts of Europe will miss the end of the eclipse due to the moon setting, but not before having an opportunity to view most of the show.
Clouds and some showers will likely spoil the celestial show across a large part of the Balkan Peninsula to Ukraine and western Russia. This includes in Moscow, Kiev, Bucharest, Belgrade, Sarajevo and Plovdiv.

Weather Overview for Europe

Where the lunar eclipse is visible, there will be plenty of opportunity for residents to gaze at the moon and to snap pictures.
"The moon will be fully eclipsed for a little more than one hour," stated AccuWeather Meteorologist and Astronomy Blogger Dave Samuhel. "But the time from the very start to the very end of the eclipse will be a little more than three hours."
According to Samuhel, a partial phase of the eclipse will begin at 2:07 a.m. BST/3:07 a.m. CEST Monday with the time of the greatest eclipse expected at 4:47 a.m. BST/5:47 a.m. CEST. The entire eclipse will end at 5:27 a.m. BST/6:27 a.m. CEST or when the moon sets in eastern Europe.
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AccuWeather Astronomy Blog
US Viewing Conditions for Supermoon Lunar Eclipse
Europe Weather Center
What makes Sunday night's lunar eclipse rare is that it is coinciding with a supermoon, which Samuhel says has not happened since 1982. This will also be the closest supermoon of 2015.
Watch below for Slooh's live broadcast of the event set to start at 1 a.m. BST/2 a.m. CEST:
A moon that is in the new or full stage when it makes its closest approach to Earth (known as lunar perigee) is defined as a supermoon.
"There will not be another supermoon eclipse until 2033 and the last total lunar eclipse anywhere across the Earth until 2018," Samuhel said.
Sunday night's supermoon will take on a red tint across its surface when it passes behind the Earth into its shadow.
"The red portion of sunlight is what makes it through our atmosphere to the other side, bent toward the eclipsed moon, so that even though the moon is within Earth's shadow, the red portion of the sun's light can give the moon this ghostly illumination," Eric Edelman of Slooh told AccuWeather.
Thumbnail: (Photo/Erin Mohr Bianco‎)