- A blood moon or total lunar eclipse is happening on Friday, July 27.
- At 1 hour 43 minutes of totality, the lunar eclipse will be the longest until the year 2123.
- People in North America, including the US, Canada, and Mexico, won't be able to see the blood moon.
- But the Weather Channel, TimeAndDate.com, Slooh, and others will broadcast live online footage of the astronomical event. Here's how to watch.
A majority of Earth is in for a special astronomical treat on Friday night: a total lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon, and the longest one in a century.
On that night, our planet will slip in front of the sun to cast an orange-red shadow on the full moon. From the moon, the Earth would appear to be surrounded by a 25,000-mile-around ring of fire.
Unfortunately, a big swath of the planet won't get witness this astronomical spectacle first-hand. The moon will be below the horizon and entirely out of sight in the US, Canada, Mexico, and other North American countries during the eclipse. (Cloudy weather could also block a clear view of the night sky for those in regions where the eclipse is visible.)
So praise be to the magic of cameras, high-powered lenses or telescopes, and the internet: Anyone with a decent web connection can watch the blood moon from their phone or computer.
Below we've listed a number of ways you can watch the total lunar eclipse live using online video streams. Some you can even play without leaving this page.
What to look for and when
To fully enjoy a blood moon, whether in person or online, it helps to understand the sequence of events, their timing, and their effects.
There are seven main phases to keep an eye out for.
The first is the official start of the lunar eclipse, or just before 1:15 p.m. EDT (17:15 UT) on Friday, July 27. This is when the moon first touches Earth's outer shadow or penumbra. It might look like the moon is getting a bite taken out of it.
The penumbral shadow will grow and deepen until about 2:24 p.m. EDT (18:24 UT). At this point, the moon will start turning orange-red because it's entering Earth's central shadow or umbra.
By about 3:30 p.m. EDT (19:30 UT), the moon should look completely colored and in "totality," or totally inside our planet's umbra.
Peak or greatest eclipse — when the moon is closest to the center of the umbra — will happen just before 4:22 p.m. EDT (20:22 UT). The moon will be at its darkest at that point.
From there, these phases will happen in reverse, with totality ending 1 hour 42 minutes and 57 seconds after it started, at 5:13 p.m. EDT (21:13 UT). That's the longest total lunar eclipse until June 9, 2123.
At 6:19 p.m. EDT (22:19 UT), the moon will exit the umbra; by 7:28 p.m. EDT (23:28 UT), the whole event will be over. After that, our lunar companion will be fully outside Earth's shadow and look like a typical full moon.
Here's how to watch all this live:
1. Slooh
Slooh, a company that airs live views of space, plans to broadcast telescope views of the entire lunar eclipse from start to finish. Their YouTube feed should go live at 1:00 p.m. EDT (17:00 UT), which is 15 minutes before the event begins.
During their show, which will also air on Facebook Live, astronomers will likely comment on the history and science of total lunar eclipses.
As Slooh explained in an email to Business Insider, the eclipse will happen when the moon "is farthest from Earth and appears at its smallest, therefore taking more time to pass through Earth's umbral shadow."
2. TimeAndDate.com
An alternative way to watch most of the lunar eclipse will be Time and Date which will start its live coverage 2:00 p.m. EDT (18:00 UT).
The website also has useful interactive maps of the event.
3. The Virtual Telescope Project
The Virtual Telescope Project, which published some of the first astronomical images of Elon Musk's car flying toward Mars orbit, will have its cameras trained on the moon during the lunar eclipse. The webcast should kick off at 2:30 p.m. EDT (18:30 UT).
"Our live coverage will be from a very unique place, the Roman Forum on the Palatine Hill, from where the eclipsed moon and the red planet will show just above the legendary Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine," astronomer Gianluca Masi, who runs the site from Europe, told Business Insider in an email. "So, both the sky and the landscape will amaze the people worldwide thanks to our streaming, as we will share all this with them."
4. The Weather Channel
This outlet has an app that will livestream the eclipse starting at 4 p.m. ET, "including the best views of the lunar eclipse from field crews in multiple countries, such as Greece, Luxembourg, Italy and Australia," a representative told Business Insider in an email.
You have to download The Weather Channel's app to watch their footage, which should last about an hour.
Note, however that only people watching from the US (or perhaps via a US internet service provider) will get to see this blood moon webcast.
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NOW WATCH: This NASA animation shows what this month's stunning lunar eclipse would look like on the moon
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