Western U.S. Has Best View Of Saturday's Total Lunar Eclipse
BOSTON (CBS/AP) - The last total lunar eclipse of the year is Saturday. And there won't be another one for three years.
Read: NASA's Lunar Eclipse Coverage
Viewers in the western half of the United States will have the best views Saturday well before dawn, Pacific and Mountain Standard Time. The farther west the better.
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"It's pretty spectacular, and if you're not prepared for it, you might think something crazy is going on," said Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
The scene from the Pacific — Australia and parts of Asia — will be prime. The action will be unfolding there Saturday night, local time.
The moon is actually going to look red during the eclipse, which is fairly rare.
"Essentially, all of the collective sunsets of the earth are projected back out onto the surface of the moon. It's a fairly unique experience," said Petro.
This is the second total lunar eclipse this year, when the entire moon is in Earth's darkest shadow and will appear red. The first was in June. That's it now until 2014. Until then, stargazers will have to settle for partial eclipses.
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