Today, I got up at 4:38 a.m. Really. I truly dislike getting up early, but today, I made an exception. An event occurred which last happened 152 years ago. It was a super moon, blue moon, blood moon total eclipse. I read this great website called "Earth and Sky". It keeps the reader up to date on astronomy, physics, biology, geology, weather, and just about any other science you can name through short articles by scientists around the world and it also has pictures. There have been wonderful reports leading up to the total eclipse.
First, a 'super moon' is simply a moon that is closest to the earth in its orbit. An astronomer would say, "The moon is at perigee." Yeah, perigee is the point when the elliptical orbit of the moon is closest to the earth. So, that's a super moon. It's about 14% bigger than when the moon is farthest from the earth (at it's apogee).
Now, here's something hilarious. The term 'super moon' was coined by Richard Nolle, an ASTROLOGER, a horoscope guy, in 1979 in the Dell Horoscope magazine. His reasoning was the average sixth grader couldn't read 'perigee syzygy' much less remember it. Thus, he made up the term 'super moon' to describe the alignment of the sun, earth and moon at either the new or the full moon. Generally, we only pay attention during the full moon. The last time a 'super moon' went bananas and eclipsed fully was September, 2015.
And, you ask yourself, well, what's a 'Blue Moon'? (Ok, so you didn't really ask yourself, but it doesn't matter because I'm going to tell you anyway.) It is NOT AN EXTRA FULL MOON IN A CALENDAR MONTH. Some fool in the 1947 issue of "Sky and Telescope" defined it that way, and that's wrong.
Simply put in astronomical terms a Blue Moon is a fourth full moon in a season. A season officially has three full moons. However, the earth doesn't have 365 days; it has 365.24 days. (That's how long it takes the earth to go around the sun.) To further screw things up, the moon doesn't go around the earth in 29 days. It goes around the earth in 29.53 days.
If you divide 365.24 by 29.53, you get 12.37 lunations. (Isn't that a great word? Lunations.) You've probably already figured out that a 'lunation' is that new moon to full moon transformation. In our Gregorian calendar there are 12 each year. But the devil is after the decimal points. You pick up about 11 extra days each year because of those damn decimal points. When those eleven days accumulate enough, well, you get a fourth full moon in a season (instead of three). That fourth full seasonal moon is a 'BLUE MOON'. It's actually pretty rare. So, 'once in a blue moon', a BLUE MOON happens. They are about 2 years and 8 months apart. That is if you use the 'seasonal' definition of a Blue Moon.
If you use the non-astronomical calendar definition, (two full moons in one calendar month), then getting a Blue Moon depends on the Gregorian Calendar and the time zone. The Blue Moon today, January 31st uses the calendar definition. (January 2, and 31st - full moons). Really confusing. Oh, and if you aren't confused enough, the Blue Moon is rarely blue. To get a blue Blue Moon, you need a volcanic eruption with particles interacting with the Earth's atmosphere in a specific way. (And, aren't you glad I'm not going to tell you about that!)
If you haven't skipped down to the pictures yet, you might as well hear about the Blood Moon. If the moon is at a certain angle during the lunar eclipse, the sun reflects off it during the eclipse and it looks red. Yes, this is real. I saw it this morning.
Now, you know why I got up at 4:38 a.m. today. I went outside in 42 degree weather and stood behind my camera mounted on a tripod and took 272 pictures of the total lunar eclipse of the super moon, which is also a blue moon, which turns into a blood moon during the eclipse. And, it was freaking cool. You will be glad to know I edited my pictures down to about 30. I hope you enjoy them. I loved taking them. This morning, however, I have to admit the cold weather chilled me to the bone even thought I was wrapped up in layers of clothing. All my capillaries have migrated to the outer portions of my body. My poor core just got frozen this morning, but it was worth it.
Here are my pictures of the total eclipse.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/tRH3DNK6GgXNjuY92
