It is another of those events with a funny name tonight, there will be a ‘Blood Moon’ and a ‘Super Moon’.
A ‘Blood Moon‘ is a total lunar eclipse, that is when the Earth blocks the sun’s light from the moon. This results in a reduction in light reaching the moon, making it go dim, but also the light that does reach the moon is filtered by the Earth’s atmosphere making it look red. The BBC website (click here for more information) says:
The eclipse will start at 01:11 BST, when the Moon enters the lightest part of the Earth’s shadow, known as the penumbra, and adopts a yellowish colour. At 03:11 BST, the Moon completely enters the umbra – the inner dark corpus of our planet’s shadow.
The point of greatest eclipse occurs at 03:47 BST, when the Moon is closest to the centre of the umbra. The sky show is over by 05:22 in the morning on Monday.
This particular lunar eclipse, the second this year, also coincides with a full moon, when the Moon’s orbit brings it closest to the Earth, making it larger in the sky, i.e. a ‘Super Moon‘.
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