Red skies at night

How to watch and photograph this week's 'super blue blood moon' in Dallas

A rare and striking lunar event — dubbed a "super blue blood moon" — will occur Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of NASA

For the first time in 35 years, a blue moon will occur during a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday, January 31, an event some have taken to calling a "super blue blood moon."

This rare lunar event is actually a combination of three different celestial phenomena: a supermoon, a blue moon, and a blood moon.

A supermoon is a full moon that occurs during its perigee, or the point in its orbit when it is at its closest to the Earth. The result is a moon that appears especially large and bright. A supermoon is about 14 percent more dazzling than an average moon.

This will be the second supermoon of the month. The first was visible on January 1 or January 2, depending on whether you were in the Eastern or Western Hemisphere. Since it is the second full moon of the month, it is also a blue moon.

At the same time, a total lunar eclipse will take place, where Earth will sit between the moon and sun, blocking all sunlight to the former and casting it in an eerie shade of coppery red. Thus, the term "super blue blood moon."

According to NASA, the "super blue blood moon" can be seen before sunrise on January 31, if you are staying in North America, Alaska, or Hawaii, and during moonrise if you are in the Middle East, Asia, eastern Russia, Australia, or New Zealand.

Specifically, NASA says on its website, the action begins in the Central time zone when the moon is high in the Western sky. At 4:51 am CST, the penumbra — or lighter part of Earth’s shadow — will touch the moon. By about 6:15 am, Earth's reddish shadow will be clearly noticeable on the moon. The eclipse will be harder to see in the lightening pre-dawn sky, and the moon will set after 7 am as the sun rises.

“You’ll have more success if you can go to a high place with a clear view to the West,” said Gordon Johnston, program executive and lunar blogger at NASA Headquarters in Washington, on NASA.com.

Last year, North Texans clamored to see a rare solar eclipse, the first since February 26, 1979. Unlike that event, this one will be safe to view with the naked eye.

ABC News offers the following tips for photographing the super blue blood moon.

Use a camera instead of a phone. If you must use a smartphone, adjust it manually so the moon doesn't look like a big blob.

Brace yourself. Steady yourself against a larger object, rather than merely holding your phone up with your hands, to avoid a blurry picture.

Frame it. Shoot the moon against a landmark to give it perspective.

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For more on this story, including video, visit our content partner, ABC-13.

weather science

income analysis

This is the family income needed for one parent to stay home in Texas

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

The cost of raising a child has ballooned in major metros like Dallas-Fort Worth, forcing many families to weight the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas, that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support their stay-at-home partner and their child, the report found. If both parents worked in the household, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in North Texas, however, is slightly more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $22,337 to raise a child in Dallas-Fort Worth.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report's author says families will look for ways to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family

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This is the family income needed for one parent to stay home in Texas