How Good It Is to See the Approaching Blood Moon
Ahead of us are interesting astronomical events in the calendar, and with a little preparation, you can see them all without leaving your home.
On Friday, July 27, there will be a blood moon or lunar eclipse, although the moon does not appear red in all eclipses. According to Forbes, the special effect is caused by indirect sunlight reflecting in the Earth’s atmosphere and scattering longer waves of blue and violet colors. All that’s left is an ominous red and orange.
This event is also the longest lunar eclipse in the century, lasting one hour and 43 minutes. Eclipses of this kind rarely happen in July – the ideal month to sit in a field at night and gaze up at the sky. Here’s how you can take advantage of this opportunity.
How to watch in person
The good news is that you don’t need a telescope or special glasses to witness this eclipse. The bad news is, you still need to be in the right part of the Earth to see this. People from Australia, Asia, Africa, South America and Europe are in the correct quadrants. North Americans will be overlooked.
For those with a great moonwatching property, if the sky is clear you should be able to find and enjoy it fairly easily. For the best time in your area, use Timeanddate.com. They have some useful pages for tracking lunar events, and they can tell you when to turn off your TV and go to the window.
How to watch online
If your area is in the wrong place, it’s cloudy, or you just hate insects, you can watch the blood moon on your computer screen. CNET reports that a virtual telescope project is being set up at the Roman Forum on the Palatine Hill in Rome for all of us. They have already started a countdown on YouTube, where you have the option to set reminders to come and watch.
As a bonus, Mars is in opposition to the Sun, which means it is on the opposite side of the Earth from our life-giving star. This means that it will appear brighter and closer than usual, and two glowing red balls will look at us. If only I was in the right country to be scared of the bloody gaze of heaven.