moon in my window

Super Blood Wolf Moon.

When I first saw the headlines, I thought Marlon Brando had sent another representative to pick up an award from him.

It was nothing so facile. We are about to experience an interesting astronomical phenomenon. And those of us in Mexico will have front row seats.

Tonight is the only full lunar eclipse of the year. Yup. One tonight. No more until we are deep into the next American presidential election cycle. And we will then be having to have another for distraction.

At 8:36 PM (central standard time), Earth will start slipping between the sun and the moon. For some very obvious reasons, a full eclipse of the moon can only happen during a full moon. And, of course, the moon is merely reflecting light from the sun.

When Earth does its photo bomb of the moon, it blocks the sun's rays from reaching the moon's surface. The result is a giant version of your Uncle Henry's amazing shadow puppet figures. But, in this case, the shadow puppet is one big Earth shadow.

At 9:41 PM, Earth will have completely blocked the sun's light. The peak full eclipse will be at 10:12 PM. and, at 10:44 PM, the natives can stop banging their pans because the light of the moon will start being restored.

At 11:48 PM, Chief Wiggins will tell us all to move along because there is nothing for us to see. He will be wrong, of course, because there will be something to see. A brilliant full moon.

And what about this Beyoncé-style re-christening of a simple eclipse? Super Blood Wolf Moon.

Well, most of it does have a scientific basis.

By now, we should all know what a super moon is after the years of astronomical hype. A moon is called "super" when its orbit brings it closet to Earth. Tonight's moon is one. It gives the impression of being a brighter moon.

Anyone who has seen a lunar eclipse has seen the "blood" moon. When the moon is in Earth's shadow, the only light reflected from  the moon has been reflected from the Earth's atmosphere. And because the angle scatters the blue light, the red light is reflected -- just like in a sunset.

As for the "wolf," that is a Native American (which tribe I know not) to the first full moon of the winter. And that is the moon we will have tonight.

Mexico in the winter is a great place to watch the night light-lightless-light show. I am going to sit on the upper terrace. It will be better that a spicy chili pepper.