August’s full Sturgeon moon late Thursday night will bring a lunar eclipse.

This will be the second half of the “eclipse pair” that started two weeks ago with the partial solar eclipse.

Eclipses come in pairs when a solar eclipse takes place with a new moon. Two weeks later, it usually results in a lunar eclipse during the full moon. This eclipse will be seen from the tri-state area, if the weather doesn’t get in the way, beginning after 10 p.m.

A lunar eclipse happens when the moon gets covered by Earth’s shadow, when it’s in a direct line with the sun. This time around, it will be a very deep partial eclipse, with about 96% of the moon covered.

Since it will be very close to a total eclipse, it will also take on a red color. 

The Earth’s atmosphere acts like a lens by scattering the blue/shorter wavelengths (colors) more and refracts the red/longer ones. The longer wavelengths bend toward the moon, causing it to appear red.

It’s like taking all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets and throwing those beautiful reddish tones directly onto the moon.