January 2018 supermoons: When to see full wolf moon, blue moon and lunar eclipse (1/1/2018)

The earth’s shadow will start touching the moon’s face at about 5:50 a.m. Eastern time, and a partial eclipse will start at 6:48 a.m., with the moon appearing to be red. Experts say the moon will be close to the horizon, so if you’re planning to see the eclipse find a location that has a clear view of the west-northwest.

At about 7 a.m., the maximum phase of the lunar eclipse will take place, with the moon close under the horizon, according to timeanddate.com.

“The best time to view the eclipse in New York would be around this time,” the website says. “Since the moon is near the horizon at this time, we recommend going to a high point or finding an unobstructed area with free sight to west-northwest for the best view of the eclipse.”

The wolf moon is an old nickname for the January full moon, dating back to the days when native American tribes gave nicknames to each month’s full moon to help keep track of the seasons.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the full moon of January “appeared when wolves howled in hunger outside the villages.” That’s how the nickname was derived, and it continued to be used during colonial times.

Since there are two full moons in January 2018, the first one will be known as the wolf moon and the second one will be called the blue moon.

The average distance between the Earth and the moon is 238,000 miles. When the moon tracks less than 223,000 miles from the Earth during its full phase, it’s considered a “supermoon” because it appears to be larger and brighter in the sky, particularly when it begins to rise over the horizon.

Some experts say that despite all the social media buzz over supermoons, they are only slightly larger than a normal full moon and casual observers probably won’t notice the difference between the two. Regardless, if the atmospheric conditions are good, this weekend’s full moon should appear to be brighter than usual.

Supermoons usually occur a few times each year, but 2017 was a dud, with only one full supermoon in the sky. That was in early December, with the full “cold moon.”

Earlier in the year, a supermoon occurred on three different occasions during the moon’s new phase, when the moon was dark at night. Although there was nothing to see, those moons met the technical definition of a supermoon because of their close proximity to our planet.