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Doomsday prophets and conspiracy theorists have claimed for several months that the rare lunar eclipse is a sign from God before the apocalypse and the second coming of Christ, and you can

watch it unfold live TONIGHT...in one of two ways. Chances are, like many prophecies before this one will come and go without major incident, but both the Slooh Telescope internet channel

and Nasa are hosting special broadcasts to record the event which will not be visible again for 18 years. A Blood Moon is a total lunar eclipse, when its colour goes a dull red or copper

colour as it passes into the earth's shadow, as the Sun’s light is refracted and scattered forward through our atmosphere and onto the Moon’s surface.  This Blood Moon is special

because it is the fourth in a series of the rare events with an 18-month period which began last April. It also coincides, for the first time in 30 years, with a Supermoon, from this

evening, when the full moon will also appear 14% bigger than normal because it is when the Moon makes its closest approach to Earth and appears largest in the sky. The scarcity of the event

has led fringe religious groups and online theorists to claim it is a sign from the heavens of impending doom such as an asteroid strike or earthquakes. But Nasa, and most astronomers, have

called for calm assuring nothing like that is about to happen. Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,

Maryland, said: "It’s just planetary dynamics. "The orbit of the moon around Earth is inclined to the axis of Earth and the orbital plane of all these things just falls into place

every once in a while. "When the rhythms line up, you might get three to four eclipses in a row or a supermoon and an eclipse happening." A Slooh spokesman said: "The April 4

(2015) eclipse lasted less than five minutes, but the September 28 “Supermoon” eclipse will last some 72 minutes, reaching totality at 03:47 (BST).  "The eclipse will be visible from

beginning to end in central and eastern North America, all of South America, and western Europe. In western North America, the Moon will rise as the eclipse is in progress. Viewers can use

the hashtag #SloohEclipse to ask questions and report their own observations during the show. Mr Petro said: "Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is

sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit "When the moon is farthest away it’s known as apogee, and when it’s closest it’s known as perigee. On Sept. 28, we’re

going to have a perigee full moon—the closest full moon of the year." At perigee, the moon is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth than at apogee. That distance equates to more than once

around the circumference of Earth. Its looming proximity makes the moon appear 30 percent brighter in the sky. BLOOD MOON: WHAT IS IT? RELATED ARTICLES The last supermoon/lunar eclipse

combination occurred in 1982 and the next won’t happen until 2033.  "That’s rare because it’s something an entire generation may not have seen," said Mr Petro. Nasa's

livestream starts at 1am (BST), on Monday, September 28, until at least 4.30am. It is broadcast from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, with a live feed from the Griffith

Observatory, Los Angeles, Mitzi Adams, a NASA solar physicist at Marshall, will discuss the eclipse and answer questions from Twitter. To ask a question, use #askNASA and also tweet photos

with #SuperBloodMoon.  To watch the Slooh channel visit http://main.slooh.com/event/supermoon-eclipse-september-28-2015/. It may involve a free sign up so log on early to get ready for the

event. The Nasa feed can be viewed here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc.