Want to see the rare supermoon lunar eclipse Sunday evening? Alaskans are in for mostly bad news about the widely anticipated event.
The phenomenon will be well underway by the time the moon rises in Alaska. The best places to be are eastern and southeastern Alaska, including Juneau, where the total lunar eclipse may be visible if the skies are clear.
This event is a rarity. A supermoon coupled with a lunar eclipse hasn't happened since 1982 and won't grace Earth's skies again until 2033, according to NASA.
A supermoon occurs when the full moon is at its closest approach in its orbit around Earth. The moon appears 14 percent larger and can look up to 30 percent brighter than a regular full moon, NASA writes.
Combine that with a lunar eclipse, when the Earth comes between the moon and the sun and casts a shadow that tints the moon a reddish-orange, and you have a rare supermoon lunar eclipse.
This is also the last of four lunar eclipses spaced six months apart that began last year. A total lunar eclipse won't happen again until 2018.
This map shows where the moon rises and sets during different stages of the total lunar eclipse on Sept. 27, 2015. Illustration courtesy Sky & Telescope.
Alaska viewing
The total eclipse begins at 6:10 p.m. Alaska time, according to Sky & Telescope, but the moon will not yet have risen in the Last Frontier. (Check your local moonrise time on the U.S. Naval Observatory's website.)
Only eastern and southeastern Alaska will have a chance to see the moon fully shaded by the Earth's shadow.
In Juneau, the moon rises at 6:40 p.m. Sunday, giving the city time to watch the total eclipse before it ends at 7:23 p.m.
In Anchorage, the moon will rise from the east at 7:42 p.m. -- but the weather service is currently forecasting rain for Sunday.
"Unfortunately, by the time that the moon gets above the Chugach range, it will be mostly out of eclipse. We will miss totality," wrote Travis Rector, professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The partial eclipse ends at 8:27 p.m. By 9 p.m., the moon will appear fully bright again.