‘Beaver Blood Moon’ Offers World’s Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2025

A full moon rises behind an electricity pylon with high-voltage power lines in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 7, 2022. Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

Nighttime skywatchers from East Asia to North America will be treated to the rare spectacle of a “Beaver blood moon” on Tuesday, weather permitting, as the Earth, moon, and sun align to produce a total lunar eclipse for the last time until 2025.

Here are some key facts about the upcoming celestial display, unfolding in an exceedingly unusual concurrence with Election Day in the United States, and about lunar eclipses in general.

What’s Happening

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow completely over a full moon, blocking reflection of all direct sunlight from the lunar orb and dimming the color of the moon to a reddish hue, hence the term “blood moon.”