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Slightly less rare than a blue moon (yes, like the one in Pocahontas) is the blood moon, and one is about to take place this holiday weekend. Though Christians claim its Easter arrival is a sign from God, there’s a scientific explanation of the phenomenon for all you skeptics out there.
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• A blood moon is a total lunar eclipse, where the moon’s color turns to blood red. The color comes from the Earth’s dark shadow on the moon.
• Set your alarms for 6:36am Saturday morning—New Yorkers get to witness the very beginning, with the West Coast, Japan and Russia getting it next.
• It’s a quickie—lasting less than five minutes (most last an hour), it will actually be the shortest eclipse in a century!
• It’s the first of 2015’s two eclipses (so don’t feel too bad if you accidentally sleep through it). The next one will arrive on Sept. 28.
• Fun fact: If you’re a math whiz, you can predict the next eclipse! Or you can forget the convoluted scientific formula and just count out 9 years and 5.5 days from this one.
• If you want to watch but don’t want to get out of bed, you’re in luck—the eclipse will be streaming live on slooh.com. It will air from Eastern Australia, which will have a view even better than what you’ll see from the bright city skyline.