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By Ryan Pfeil Mail Tribune October 06. 2014 3:12PM Lunar eclipse should be visible in southwest Oregon skies Wednesday A lunar eclipse is expected to be visible in the early morning hours Wednesday. Photo by North Medford High School student Michael Guevara If you're tough enough to sacrifice some sleep and head outside around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, an apple-colored moon will be your reward. A lunar eclipse is expected to begin at about 2:15 a.m., peaking with a full reddish hue between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. This eclipse won't feature smothering darkness with a band of light around the perimeter, as seen with solar eclipses. This event will start off with a shadow — cast by the Earth — then gradually shimmer up to an auburn sheen. "It's kind of like a million sunsets reflecting on the moon at once," says Dave Bloomsness of Southern Oregon Skywatchers. "It's just kind of a neat transition." Robert Black, astronomy teacher and planetarium director at North Medford High School, said the effect is caused by sunlight being filtered through the atmosphere. "If you were on the moon looking at the sun during the total lunar eclipse, you'd see the Earth with a red ring of fire around it," Black says. "That's what an astronaut or someone living on the moon would actually see. They themselves would be bathed in light." Southwest Oregon is a prime place to view the phenomenon. Some patchy fog is expected on the Oregon Coast, but the skies over the rest of Southern Oregon and Northern California are expected to be clear. The eclipse is the second of four such events over a two-year period. A series of four total eclipses occurring at approximately six-month intervals is called a tetrad, Black says. The NASA website says there were five between 1900 and 2000. From 1600 to 1900, however, there were none. (Details on the number of tetrads have been corrected in this version.) "I know that they're rare in historical terms," Black says. "And we're in the premier position to see all four." He admits the time of day is not optimal for many people. "The timing is horrible," Black says. "It's the middle of the night on a school night, a work night. Three in the morning is three in the morning." A partial solar eclipse is expected to occur in two weeks. It will peak in the afternoon on Thursday, Oct. 23, and will temporarily alter the sun's shape from burning orb to simmering crescent. The tetrad began April 15 when the full moon passed through the shadow of Earth, producing a midnight eclipse visible across North America, according to NASA's website. The next two lunar eclipses will occur April 4, 2015, and Sept. 28, 2015. Reach reporter Ryan Pfeil at 541-776-4468 or [email protected] . Follow him at www.twitter.com/ryanpfeil . http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141006/NEWS/141009782 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->