An Extremely Rare Harvest Moon Eclipse Is Happening Today

An extremely rare lunar event will take place on the evening of Sept. 16, and if you miss it, you might not be able to catch it again until 2024. On this night, the harvest moon — the full moon nearest to the start of Fall — will rise and then experience a subtle eclipse, referred to as a penumbral eclipse. The result is a large moon, oftentimes referred to as a supermoon, that temporarily looks like it has a spooky fog obscuring it.

While the moon will still look special for those living in North America, they will not be able to see the actual eclipse as it will start to take place by 1 p.m. EDT. That does, however, mean that countries in the Eastern hemisphere will get to witness the exciting eclipse in addition to the full harvest moon.

Many are comparing the event to other supermoon eclipses witnessed in the last few years. Look ahead to get an idea of what it will look like. You can also see anything you missed from Slooh's live stream of the lunar eclipse.