The super blood moon, which will reach totality between 11.11pm and 11.25pm tomorrow, is a rare combination of three factors - a full moon, the moon being at its closest point to Earth in its orbit, and the total lunar eclipse, Niwa said.
The "supermoon" will coincide with the total lunar eclipse for the first time since 1982. The moon will appear rusty red in colour and larger than usual. The red colour is due to the earth blocking the sun’s light and only heavily filtered light reaching the moon.
The best places in New Zealand to view the super blood moon based on NIWA’s forecast models as of Tuesday morning are Canterbury, Southland, Otago, West Coast, Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough, Wellington, Manawatu-Whanganui, Taranaki, Waikato and Auckland.
Meteorologist Ben Noll said some scattered cloud is forecast for Fiordland, Northland, and Bay of Plenty, but stargazers shouldn’t be discouraged because there may be enough breaks in the cloud to spot the eclipse.
Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne have a reduced chance of spotting it because of thicker cloud cover. The last time a super blood moon occurred in New Zealand was in December 1982.
