For the first time in decades, skygazers are in for the double spectacle Monday of a swollen "supermoon" bathed in the blood-red light of a total eclipse.
The celestial show, visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, west Asia and the east Pacific, will be the result of the Sun, Earth and a larger-than-life, extra-bright Moon lining up for just over an hour from 0211 GMT.
"It will be quite exciting and especially dramatic," predicted astronomer Sam Lindsay of the Royal Astronomical Society in London. "It'll be brighter than usual, bigger than usual."
The Moon will be at its closest orbital point to Earth, called perigee, while also in its brightest phase.
The resulting "supermoon" will look 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than when at apogee, the farthest point—which is about 49,800 kilometres (31,000 miles) from perigee.
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
[Ed. Note: Here is a selection of other writeups from around the web. Wired has a nice article with a graphic of this being the last in a tetrad (sequence of four total lunar eclipses over the span of about two years.) NASA has a story on the supermoon eclipse which notes: "The last supermoon/lunar eclipse combination occurred in 1982 and the next won't happen until 2033."
Lastly, but possibly the best article of the bunch, Universe Today's coverage has excellent explanations and graphics, as well as a chart for viewing times for each of the phases for each of the time zones in the USA.]
Update: This eclipse is of a supermoon (technically, it's called perigee-syzygy; see: perigee and syzygy) Depending on your time zone, it runs from late Sunday September 27th into the early hours of Monday September 28th. Adapting information available at the Universe Today link, we have:
| Eclipse Events | UTC | EDT | PDT |
| Penumbra first visible | 12:45 a.m. | 8:45 p.m. | 5:45 p.m. |
| Partial eclipse begins | 1:07 a.m. | 9:07 p.m. | 6:07 p.m. |
| Total eclipse begins | 2:11 a.m. | 10:11 p.m. | 7:11 p.m. |
| Mid-eclipse | 2:48 a.m. | 10:48 p.m. | 7:48 p.m. |
| Total eclipse ends | 3:23 a.m. | 11:23 p.m. | 8:23 p.m. |
| Partial eclipse ends | 4:27 a.m. | 12:27 a.m. | 9:27 p.m. |
| Penumbra last visible | 4:45 a.m. | 12:45 a.m. | 9:45 p.m. |
(Score: 2) by basstard on Saturday September 26 2015, @05:31AM
Weather forecast looks promising over here, I have two days to spend for location hunting (I recently move to a new town) and I have a new tele lens. This sounds too good already.
Oh well, there's still time for the forecast to change to more usual...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gman003 on Saturday September 26 2015, @06:07AM
Look, normally I hate telling people what words to use and not use. I hate being told that, and so I hate telling it to others. But I have to make an exception for "supermoon".
Can we please be smarter than this? "Supermoon" is an astrological term, not an astronomical one. It originated in bullshit pseudoscience, and became popular with an urban legend. I'm quite frankly sick of it, and would like to never see it again. I know it's futile to expect "popular science" sites to give up the trend, but I always thought Soylent was trying to bring a better class of visitor. I doubt many intelligent people will stick around if they constantly see this kind of crap around.
If we need to note that the moon is full near perigee, the term to use is just that: "perigee full moon". Far more descriptive, and it avoids any distasteful history.
(Yes, I'm aware NASA's own PR page uses the word "supermoon". Let's just say that NASA's PR is not something we want to emulate.)
(Score: 3, Touché) by penguinoid on Saturday September 26 2015, @06:44AM
Similarly, a blood moon is a perfectly legitimate computer game event and we should not dilute that by referring to some weird lunar thing in the same way.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
(Score: 1) by pk on Saturday September 26 2015, @06:44AM
If not, the next logical place to use this is to talk about the "supersun" when the Earth is at perigee. By the way, why is it so darn cold even during a supersun event?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday September 26 2015, @06:58AM
Just like last time, this "supermoon" will be a disappointment to most observers, and most will not be able to detect "14 percent larger". What the hell does that actually mean anyway?
The moon rises and is huge due to the "Moon Illusion" [wikipedia.org] when the moon is near the horizon. Then as the moon rises the moon looks smaller. People are already conditioned to perceive the moon at various sizes and they aren't going to notice 14 percent.
So they yawn and go back inside, and the the hypesters extinguish another inquisitive mind.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 26 2015, @09:51AM
http://i1.wp.com/www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Supermoon_comparison.jpeg
Which will make them say "erm, yeah, I guess it's a bit larger, but meh", which will hopefully help extinguish any remaining astrological concepts they still cling to. Nicely done, universe today, for showing something cold and hard and factual!
However, the article *shouldn't* contain fucked up graphics like this:
http://i2.wp.com/www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Total-lunar-eclipse-moon-FreeUse_ANNO.jpg
Which is so wrong it's painful, and teaches nobody anything. Shame on you universe today, that's completely negated anything positive from your previous photo, you dozy fucknuts!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Saturday September 26 2015, @09:42AM
Can you persuade people not to call strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries "berries"?
No, nor should you. Common use predates any scientific argot.
And "super" applied to something that's larger than something else predates any knowledge of planet and satelite orbits, and hence the term "perigee".
As long as the masses know that the moon is larger because it's closer, rather than because it's bursting full and about to hatch, then there's no harm with using simple terminology to describe a simple notion.
If you want people to turn off after reading half a sentence, then go ahead, feel all clever and use fancy language. Personally, I'd rather that people actually became interested in scientific news, rather than turning off.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2015, @07:08AM
Damn you sound insufferably elitist. I am a multiple-degree holding know-it-all and even I get creeped out by you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Saturday September 26 2015, @07:34AM
I am a multiple-degree holding know-it-all
Multiple degrees in Aural analysis and Homeopathic Remedying and Astral Photography do not give the the credentials to be creeped out by anyone, although it understandable that you would be creeped out by anyone with the slightest knowledge of actual science. Do you not realize that this is the Fourth Blood Moon of the Tetrad? Do you not realize that this has never happened before except when it did an it is easily predictable from out current astronomical knowledge? And the alignment of the planets can only mean one thing! Republican victory in the next presidential election in the United States. I mean, blood moon, what else could it mean? I guess it could mean that my tomato crop will fail, since that already happened. Or that my dog will die, but he is well on the way to that without any help from the stars. Or it could mean that Christianity is going to collapse, since it does not believe in astrology, and here we have a tetrad of Blood Moons (did I mention that these are "Blood Moons"? ) so obviously the Church is wrong and we are all going to die.
On the bright side, I am so happy that so many people are taking an interest in star-gazing, which is a good thing even if they do not perish in the apocalypse, in fact, good especially if they do not. If you anticipate a total apocalypse, please send all your money, worldly good, and cheesecake to me, I will hold them until you get back. Except the cheesecake. I can make no promises about cheesecake prior to an apocalypse. Who could?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2015, @05:42PM
Physics, math, and accounting degrees. What are your qualifications aside from ranting like a lunatic in all of your posts?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday September 26 2015, @06:30PM
Been doing astronomy since circa 297 BC. Google "Aristarchus of Samos". The Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristarchus_of_Samos [wikipedia.org] is not completely accurate, but it is close enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2015, @08:35PM
Are you that far gone that you argue with people on the internet and presume authority of someone long dead, yet still see fit to inject your opinion. Worse, sometimes you are modded up. What the fuck kind of site is soylentnews?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday September 26 2015, @09:47PM
Accounting, huh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 27 2015, @08:03AM
I care not about your degrees, but about whether or not you truly understand what you claim to understand. There is a difference between having a degree and having a deep understanding of the subject your degree pertains to. I'm not saying you don't understand, but don't dismiss someone merely because they lack a degree. Similarly, don't think highly of someone merely because they have one or more degrees.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday September 26 2015, @06:50PM
Except the cheesecake. I can make no promises about cheesecake prior to an apocalypse. Who could?
King Missile [youtube.com] is that you?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 26 2015, @12:27PM
Now we are smarter about it. Thanks for pointing that out. This is why I like Soylent, because there are lots of folks who are much more knowledgeable on many subjects than I am, and I learn a lot of stuff I would not otherwise.
Professional astronomists probably don't come to Soylent looking for other professional astronomists to talk shop with. It's a gathering place for nerds of many stripes to discuss news for nerds. Inevitably some nerd among that crowd of nerds will use an imprecise term at some point in the context of some subject in which he is not expert, and will be promptly corrected by others more knowledgeable, as you have just done. But to imply that that nerd is not intelligent or not of "a better class of visitor" is a bit precipitous, don't you think?
That's also good to know, for those who are not cosmologists or astronomists or astronauts, that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is not a good source for authoritative information about space.
If I may, a slight digression on a related note. Take "cloud" computing. I think it's a stupid term. What it actually means has been around forever. Even the idea of "over the Internet" cloud computing has been around for a very long time. I remember an outfit called XDrive that was exactly the same thing as what they now call "cloud" back in the DotCom days. It went belly up. There was another outfit after them that was trying to market its service to keep all your devices synched up (sorry, can't remember their name at the moment) that I would keep seeing at the Javitz Center. I don't think they're around anymore either. And so whenever I see "cloud" I have a fleeting impulse to correct it, but know it's a lost cause. It's called "cloud" now and that has made it a thing. Same thing with "hacker" vs. "cracker." Lost cause.
"Supermoon" is like "cloud."
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2015, @08:39PM
We use "super" in the naming of certain radio frequencies [wikipedia.org]. Some of the other terms for RF bands could be used instead. How about verymoon, ultramoon or teramoon?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2015, @08:41PM
Me again. How could I forget "extermoon"?
(Score: 2) by ticho on Saturday September 26 2015, @08:07AM
Guys, can you please also include date when this is happening in the story? With soylentnews' usual story delay, I am never sure whether I'm reading about something that is yet to happen, or about something that has already happened. Having only "0211 GMT" as a time specification doesn't help at all in this case.
(I just noticed that "Monday" is also mentioned in the story, so this comment is losing its weight quickly. Still, explicit date + time together would be much, much more useful than having to scavenge hunt the datetime pieces across the whole article. Cheers! :) )
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 26 2015, @10:52AM
Sunday night, approx. beginning 8pm EST and peaking, I believe, between 10-11pm. That's what I heard on NPR. Anyone with more precise knowledge jump in?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Informative) by martyb on Saturday September 26 2015, @01:00PM
So sorry about that! It *is* in the linked articles, but it certainly would have made sense to include it *somewhere* in the TFS! I apologize for the oversight. I've added a table to the summary.
Thanks for keeping us on our toes!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 1) by cellocgw on Saturday September 26 2015, @12:45PM
+5 just for putting "perigee" and "szygy" in the same sentence!
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 26 2015, @01:12PM
Thumbs up for the update, particularly the table.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Saturday September 26 2015, @01:43PM
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Sunday September 27 2015, @02:43AM
I think us werewolves are going to party hard that night. :-)