Weather may not cooperate for viewing of 'blood moon' on Long Island

Wednesday morning at 6:25 a.m., the full moon will be entering total eclipse phase, meaning the moon is passing into the Earth's inner shadow and likely beginning to take on a reddish hue.

With a serious dollop of weather luck Long Islanders might be able to catch a glimpse of the so-called "blood moon" shortly before sunrise.

But, without that good fortune -- related to how quickly a rain system passes through the area -- large portions of the skies will be cloud-covered and rainy, according to a midafternoon Tuesday forecast from the National Weather Service.

If the system "speeds up," cloud cover could clear some, at least for western Nassau, but "right now it's mostly cloudy" for that time frame, said Brian Ciemnecki, weather service meteorologist in Upton.

Still, Sue Rose of East Meadow, president of the Amateur Observers' Society of New York, will be heading out Wednesday morning to an area beach, because, "you never know when a hole [ in the cloud cover] comes at just the right time."

"We're keeping our fingers crossed, without a doubt," said Rose, a retired air traffic controller.

As the moon will be low in the sky, she advises other optimists to find a spot with a good, clear view of the western horizon. The moon appears to turn red, she said, because of light from the sun moving through Earth's atmosphere, with the combination of Earth's sunrises and sunsets projected onto the moon.

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Should Tuesday's sighting be a washout -- or even it's not -- Rose points to this month's other highlights in the sky: the Orionid meteor shower on Oct. 21, and a partial solar eclipse on Oct. 23.

"It's a very exciting astronomical month," she said.