This year, a total lunar eclipse will occur with the full Moon on July 27. However, this eclipse won’t be visible from the U.S. or Canada. (The next total lunar eclipse visible in North America will occur in January 2019—not too far off!) For sky watch buffs, it may be interesting to know that this is the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century. From start to finish, the event will last four hours, with the totality lasting 1 hour and 43 minutes. You’ll hear some media outlets call this event the “Blood Moon” Eclipse. This is an increasingly popular name used for a total lunar eclipse, but is not an official, scientific term. Put simply, the fully-eclipsed Moon turns a red-orange, similar to a sunset color; with less direct sunlight hitting the Moon during the eclipse, you only see the reddish wave lengths. One of the more common names for this month’s Full Moon is the Thunder Moon, a tribute from the Algonquin to a time of year when spectacular electrical storms rake the northern forests. The Chinese deserve credit for an equally ominous name. The moon coincides with the Hungry Ghost Festival, a time when the living honor the dead by leaving food and drink to the ancestors. Their name? The Moon of the Hungry Ghosts. In medieval England, the moon had a more cheerful connotation. Crops were nearing harvest and if the fields were tall and healthy, the farmers went out to celebrate with their favorite drink, a fermented mixture of honey, malt, yeast and water (an acquired taste). Today farmers might call it The Beer Moon or the Buck Moon, but back then the growers knew it as the Mead Moon. 📸 : Old Farmers Almanac 📄 : Old Farmers Almanac and Moon Giant