Nearly one billion people in the Americas will have front-row views for near-total lunar eclipse

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.— Now it’s the moon’s turn to pull a disappearing act.After being shut out of this month’s total solar eclipse, the Americas will have the best seats in the celestial house when Earth’s shadow briefly envelops the moon.

Almost the entire lunar surface will be masked Thursday night into Friday — a whopping 96% — making this an especially deep partial eclipse.The moon is already in the spotlight.NASA sent the Artemis II astronauts on a record-breaking lunar flyby in April, the prelude to eventually landing on the surface and building a base swarming with people and robots over the next several years.“This is a great time to be part of the space program, right? We’re not slowing down,” NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway told The Associated Press from the International Space Station last week.It’s the second act of the greatest show in the solar system, coming two weeks after a total solar eclipse paraded through Greenland, Iceland and Spain.Eclipses always travel in pairs as the sun, moon and Earth align so precisely that one obscures the other.

That’s because the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, which is 400 times farther away, making them appear the same size — a cosmic coincidence and gift from the universe.Unfolding at a more leisurely pace, the upcoming lunar eclipse will have a much bigger audience than Europe’s solar show.The eclipsed moon will be visible to billions across North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, provided the skies are clear.The lunar eclipse may also be visible to Hathaway and the nine other people living off the planet — seven astronauts at the International Space Station and three aboard China’s orbiting outpost.Space provides a “unique perspective” for viewing cosmic wonders like eclipses and auroras, said the space station’s commander, Jessica Meir.

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