How to See a Super Blue Blood Moon
Heaven is really pulling out all the stops in 2018. On Wednesday, there is the opportunity to see a rather amazing trio of the moon: super, blue and bloody.
The Super Blue Blood Moon is a great opportunity to understand what these terms really mean. In my imagination, I see witchcraft and people running wild over the hills, having orgies and so on in the moonlight. But these are actually scientific terms, as The Washington Post explains .
Unfortunately, blue moons are not actually blue. This term actually means the second blue moon of the month, which is rare; they usually only occur once every 2.7 years. The next time you say “once per blue moon,” you will know what you mean every 2.7 years. More interesting information is that the “blood moon” gives the moon a red hue as it passes through the shadow of the Earth. There will be a total lunar eclipse at certain times.
Supermoons are the most difficult to explain, as well as the most common special moons:
It is a supermoon because it will become full at the point closest to Earth in its orbit, known as perigee, which will appear slightly larger and about 14 percent brighter than normal. Perigee will come on Tuesday, the day before the full moon, when our planet and the moon are 223,068 miles apart. Supermoons are fairly common, with an average of every 14 months. The one that ends in January is actually the third after the supermoons on January 1 and December 3, 2017.
The frequency of these three lunar omens is, of course, different, but they rarely coincide. The last time the blood moon occurred simultaneously with the blue moon in America was in 1866. So how do you see it?
Newsweek spoke with NASA planetary geologist Sarah Noble, who figured out what time to look up in good weather:
The best time to wait for a supermoon is shortly after sunset, when the moon is low on the horizon. At this point, the Moon appears more to the human eye, although no one knows exactly why. Weather will also affect how big and bright the moon is on Wednesday, Noble said.
But the best way to see a total eclipse is to live in the west of the country. On the east coast, the eclipse will not reach full point until moonset. But you can watch it live through NASA and the virtual telescope project, and check where you are on the eclipse map here .