Blood Flower Moon to blossom over Orlando during weekend’s total lunar eclipse

The dark, rustic light of a blossoming Blood Flower Moon will dominate the Orlando sky early Monday.

The celestial phenomenon is a must-see event for selenophiles hoping to see a total lunar eclipse and May’s full moon. While the moon won’t look like a flower, it is known as the Flower Moon due to its emergence during the springtime and coinciding with the blossoming of flowers, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.

As for the blood, that is a reference to the rust-like color the full moon will take on during the total eclipse, in which Earth’s atmosphere scatters sunlight causing the Sun’s blue light to scatter away from the moon and allowing longer wavelengths of red, orange and yellow light to pass through, in a process called “Rayleigh scattering,” according to NASA.

Orlando residents are in prime real estate for the viewing as the eastern half will best see Monday’s eclipse of the United States and South America.

Monday’s eclipse will begin entering the partial shadow of the Earth at 9:32 p.m. EDT on Sunday night. Still, it shouldn’t begin darkening until around 10:30 p.m., when the moon begins entering the Earth’s full shadow, or umbra, NASA stated.

By 11:30 p.m. the moon should be completely darkened. However, the peak eclipse, or the maximum darkening, will begin at 12:11 a.m. The moon will begin emerging from the umbra around 12:54 a.m. and finish occurring just before 2 a.m.

There is a 30% chance of rain Sunday night, but the evening should be mostly clear, according to the National Weather Service. If clouds do block your vantage point, NASA will feature livestreams of the eclipse from locations across the globe and host an episode of NASA Science Live from 11 p.m.-midnight.