Here is another great also extra special celestial event for all the astronomical junkies out there! The last day of the first month in 2018 is going to end in a spectacular way. Astronomers are calling the event “Super Blue Blood Moon”.
Why extra special? We will get to that in a moment. Let’s first understand Supermoon and Blood Moon.
Supermoon is simply when the Moon is closer to earth and looks bigger than usual – it’s because Moon reaches Earth in its elliptical orbit. This phenomena falls on a full moon day. On this night, there will also be Lunar Eclipse (When Earth gets between the Sun and the Moon) in some parts of the world.
Blood Moon is nothing but another term for Total Lunar Eclipse. As the name suggests, Moon appears to be dark reddish in color. As mentioned, Lunar Eclipse happens when Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon blocking the sunlight falling on the Moon. However, some sunlight still reaches the lunar surface through Earth’s atmosphere indirectly that causes reddish, yellow or orange glow (there’s some scientific phenomena called Rayleigh scattering – maybe later on that).
Now, there is a second full moon in this calendar month – yay, they name this occurrence as Blue moon.
Three different astronomical event in the same day, makes it extra special – hence the name “Super Blue Blood Moon”.
Isn’t that cool? I think it is!
So to the ones who can’t observe this event in person, NASA will be livestreaming the event beginning at 5:30 a.m. EST on Jan. 31. Click here as well as on NASA TV
And for the folks in the Middle East, Asia, eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand, you will be seeing it during moonrise in the evening.
Happy “Super Blue Blood Moon” watching!
