You Can See A Lunar Eclipse And Venus All In The Same Week

Rejoice, space nerds — or normal people who really enjoy the wonders of space — because this week not only will we be able to see Venus from our backyard, but a spectacular lunar eclipse will also be upon us as summer comes to a close and fall begins.

On Monday, Venus will be visible to the naked eye since it will be reaching a magnitude of 4.8, which is the brightest the planet can get in our skies, according to National Geographic. The best time to see Venus is during the morning hours right before the sun begins to rise. If you look out to the low southeast sky, you will no doubt be able to see Venus because it will be sparkling in the morning light.

If you happened to catch the moon this weekend, you would have noticed how gigantic and orange it looked. This is the super moon shadow, and it begins to look awesome because it is getting ready to undergo a total eclipse, which we will be able to see. The eclipse will being on September 27 at about 9:07 p.m. EDT, and it will reach its full eclipse around 10:00 p.m. EDT and stay like that for about 72 minutes.

Since the moon is red in appearance right now, it will give off a blood moon eclipse, which will look awesome. An eclipse like the one we are about to see next weekend is super rare and hasn’t happened in over 30 years. That means a supermoon and lunar eclipse haven’t happened since 1982, and it won’t happen against until 2033, so this isn’t something you are going to want to miss.

Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, said in a press release, “The only thing that will happen on Earth during an eclipse is that people will wake up the next morning with neck pain because they spent the night looking up.”

Petro says this because ancient Incans and Mesopotamian believe that the moon will be under attack during a lunar eclipse, and it raises concern in some people. Have no fear — both the Earth and the moon will be safe during the lunar eclipse, and you will be seeing an amazing show.

This is only the third lunar eclipse that will be happening in a four-part series. The last lunar eclipse will happen on October 27, so if you miss this one, don’t worry — you still have one more awesome eclipse to see before they are gone for a while.

NASA even made this cool video to go along with the lunar eclipse that will be happening later in the week.

Other amazing things happening in September includes two days that will have 12 hours of sunlight, and you will be able to see Mars on September 24 if you get up early enough and look towards the low western horizon.

[Image by Phil Walter/ Getty Images]