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posted by janrinok on Friday January 05 2018, @06:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the still-waiting-for-the-hyper-ultra-mega-turbo-moon dept.

According to a report at phys.org, The moon is about to do something it hasn't done in more than 150 years:

Three separate celestial events will occur simultaneously that night, resulting in what some are calling a super blue blood moon eclipse. The astronomical rarity hasn't happened for more than 150 years.

A super moon, like the one visible on New Year's Day, is the term for when a full moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit, appearing bigger and brighter than normal.

On Jan. 31, the moon will be full for the second time in a month, a rare occasion—it happens once every two and a half years—known as a blue moon.

To top it off, there will also be a total lunar eclipse. But unlike last year's solar eclipse, this sky-watching event isn't going to be as visible in the continental United States. The best views of the middle-of-the-night eclipse will be in central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia, although Alaska and Hawaii will get a glimpse, too.

For the rest of the U.S., the eclipse will come too close to when the moon sets for the phenomenon to be visible.

Because of the way the light filters through the atmosphere during an eclipse, blue light is bounced away from the moon, while red light is reflected. The eclipsed moon's reddish color earned it the nickname blood moon.

Super blue blood moon?

So, an extremely noble or socially prominent moon? ;)

I wonder what differences, if any, there would be in the appearance of the Earth from a person standing on the moon, compared to a "normal" full moon?


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday January 05 2018, @06:35PM (6 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Friday January 05 2018, @06:35PM (#618431) Journal

    Call it whatever you like—a blue red moon, a purple moon, a blood moon—but the moon will be a special sight on Jan. 31

    You know, dear editors, that some times a story just ages out.

    In this case better never than late.

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  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by frojack on Friday January 05 2018, @06:37PM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Friday January 05 2018, @06:37PM (#618432) Journal

    I doubt we have any readers in central and eastern Asia, Indonesia,

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    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 05 2018, @07:09PM

      by Freeman (732) on Friday January 05 2018, @07:09PM (#618441) Journal

      I don't know, they could be using a VPN to read our insightful comment.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:19PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:19PM (#618449)

    I'm a time traveler, you insensitive clod!

    (Oh, and stay away from major cities this year! Riots in every major city!)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @07:56AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @07:56AM (#618669)

    For longer than mankind has had the capacity to gaze at the night sky, and wonder about the lights in they sky, that rock has been there, going around, and around, in a slightly eccentric orbit. It doesn't know anything about a recently invented calendar, or blues, or reds, or even about eclipses. It just stays in it's orbit, and does what it is supposed to do - which is nothing. Unless, of course, existing is something.

    Yet, we gaze at that bigass rock, and imagine all sorts of things about it.

    Super blue blood lunar eclipse? Surely, that must be a portent of SOMETHING. Ahhh, yes, it is a portent of confusion and mass hysteria among the naked upright mammals on earth. Nothing to see here, no moons have been harmed, no intelligent creatures have been discomfited.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Saturday January 06 2018, @12:58PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday January 06 2018, @12:58PM (#618733) Journal

      Apart from the "blue" part, this hasnothing to do with calendars.

      The "super moon" is related to the excentricity of the moon's orbit. And the "blood moon" is related to the relative alignment of the orbits of earth and moon, and the fact that the earth has an atmosphere which bends light.

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