Sky-watchers around the world are in for a treat tonight and tomorrow
when the shadow of earth casts a reddish glow on the moon, the result
of rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the
year.
The total "supermoon" lunar eclipse, also known as a "blood moon" is
one that appears bigger and brighter than usual as it reaches the point
in its orbit that is closest to earth.
"There’s no physical difference in the moon. It just appears slightly
bigger in the sky," planetary geologist Noah Petro, with Nasa’s Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said.
If skies are clear, the phenomenon will be visible from North and
South America, Europe, Africa and parts of West Asia and the eastern
Pacific. In the United States, the eclipse begins at 8:11pm EDT. The
total eclipse starts two hours later and lasts for one hour and 12
minutes.
It has been more than 30 years since a supermoon combined with a
lunar eclipse, said Nasa. The next total lunar eclipse will not be until
2018. The next supermoon-lunar eclipse combination will not happen
until 2033.
For more than an hour Sunday night, earth’s shadow will blanket the
full moon as the planet passes between the sun and the moon. The
brilliant white glow of the moon will slowly transform into a dim red.
The colouring is caused by earth’s atmosphere scattering sunlight into
the shadow.
Because the moon is not perfectly round, its distance from earth
varies by about 49,900km as it circles around the planet every 27 days.
At its closest point, known as perigee, the moon comes as close as
363,104km from earth. At apogee, the most distant point, the moon is
406,696km away.
