Supermoon eclipse over Nova Scotia skies Sunday

One of this meteorologist's favourite songs has always been Bad Moon Rising by CCR, well this weekend it is a Super Harvest Moon Rising and Eclipsing!

Ok, I'll leave the song titles to the professionals, but let's talk about the rare phenomena set to make an appearance in our night sky Sunday night into Monday morning.

The easiest way to do this is to break down what we are going to see piece by piece.

First up: what is a supermoon? This one is easy. A supermoon is a full moon that is at its closest point (perigee) in its orbit to the Earth.

As for the eclipse, the supermoon this weekend will be moving directly into the Earth's shadow (umbra) blocking it from fully reflecting the light of the sun.

The partial eclipse begins at 10:07 p.m. Sunday evening with the total eclipse completing at 11:47 p.m.

The eclipse will be finished at 1:27 a.m. Monday morning.

This is a somewhat rare lunar event. The last time it occurred was 1982 and the next time it will occur after the weekend will be 2033.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon takes on a distinct reddish tone and may be referred to as a "blood moon."

Additionally, it is the the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox this year, making it a "harvest moon." The following full moon with be a "hunter's moon."

You may have also heard the tides are expected to be especially high next week and this is true.

The close proximity of the full moon to the Earth and occurrence near the autumnal equinox will all help produce higher tides this weekend and next week.

Now for the important part: how's the forecast looking?

Looking at the overall expected conditions for Sunday, it does appear that we will still be under the influence of high pressure. That would give us a good chance of decent viewing.

As we saw this past Tuesday, however, even with high pressure in place, it is possible to see obstructing layers of clouds move over top.

While cautiously optimistic, I'll wait until Friday when I can get a better look on satellite imagery before issuing a more concrete forecast.

You can watch www.facebook.com/kalinCBC for that. Fingers crossed for good viewing!