A "blood moon" eclipse will occur in mid-April and be the first of four such astronomical events to take place over the next two years.
According to astronomers, the blood moon eclipse will be visible on April 15 for the majority of the country, beginning at approximately 3:07 a.m. EST and lasting around 77 minutes. It will reportedly hit its peak at 3:36 a.m. EST. For those living on the West Coast, the blood moon eclipse will reportedly be visible one day earlier.
The blood moon occurs when the lunar surface adopts a shade of reddish-orange color as the Earth casts its shadow on the moon. The color results from the Earth's atmosphere bending toward the moon.
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Often associated with the supernatural, this cycle of blood moon eclipses is of particular religious significance for some since all four blood moons coincide with major Jewish feast days between 2014 and 2015, thereby tying in with a prophecy mentioned in the book of Genesis and the Jewish Bible's book of Joel.
In Joel 3:4, the blood moon prophecy predicts, "The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." This verse also appears in the Protestant Bible as Joel 2:31.
According to some Christians, the blood moon prophecy suggests the second coming of Christ.
The 2014 blood moons will occur April 15 and Oct. 8, which respectively coincide with the Jewish Passover and Feast of the Tabernacle, or Sukkot. In 2015, the same blood-red eclipses will happen on April 4 and Sept. 28, which again coincide with the same Jewish holidays one year later.
Though rare, consecutive total lunar eclipses, known as tetrads, have occurred in the recent past, the last time being in 2004 and 2005, and are likely to occur between eight and nine times over the next 100 years.
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