12/30/2023 0 Comments Moon lunar eclipse blood moon![]() The total lunar eclipse was visible in much of Africa, Europe and South America and most of North America. People in South America and in the eastern part of North America were expected to get the best view of the lunar eclipse, said Noah Petro, chief of NASA’s Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab, before the eclipse. However, this only means two full moons occur within a single month, not that the Moon is actually blue or that any astronomical event occurs.The blood moon rises over lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City on May 15, 2022. Lunar eclipses may last for a few hours and are safe to view directly (unlike solar eclipses) at any point in time.īonus Fact: The other colored moon name is the blue moon. While a solar eclipse can only be viewed from a small portion of the Earth, a lunar eclipse is visible anywhere on Earth where it's night. The other eclipses are either partial or penumbral. No lunar eclipse in 2017 is a blood moon, two eclipses in 2018 are, and only one of the eclipses in 2019 is. In order to be a "blood moon" or red moon, the lunar eclipse needs to be total. Lunar typically occur 2-4 times each year, but total eclipses are relatively rare. The red color is most noticeable during a total lunar eclipse of the Super Moon, which is the full moon when the Moon is closest to Earth or at perigee. Violet, blue, and green light is scattered more strongly than orange and red light, so the sunlight illuminating the full moon appears red. The red-orange color happens because sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere is refracted. The moon appears reddish only at or near the total umbral eclipse. A lunar tetrad is a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, six months apart. The media started referring to total lunar eclipes as "blood moons" around the year 2010, to describe a rare lunar tetrad. The phrase "blood moon" is not scientific terminology. DR FRED ESPENAK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images The moon appears most red or "bloody" at and near totality of a lunar eclipse. L = 4: Bright copper or orange lunar eclipse, with a blue umbral shadow and bright rim. L = 3: Brick red eclipse where the umbral shadow has a yellow or bright rim. The Moon is relatively dark at totality, but easily visible. L = 2: Deep red or rusty eclipse at totality, with a dark central shadow but a bright outer edge. L = 1: Dark eclipse in which the details of Moon are hard to distinguish and the Moon appears brown or gray at totality. When people imagine what a lunar eclipse looks like, this is probably what they envision. L = 0: Dark lunar eclipse where the Moon becomes nearly invisible at totality. A total penumbral eclipse can precede or follow a total umbral eclipse.Īll lunar eclipses don't look the same! Andre Danjon proposed the Danjon scale to describe the appearance of a lunar eclipse: The eclipse lasts longest when the Moon is at its furthest point or apogee. How long the eclipse lasts depends on how close the Moon is to the Earth. This type of lunar eclipse occurs about 35% of the time. Total Lunar Eclipse - Generally when people talk about a total lunar eclipse, they mean the type of eclipse where the Moon travels fully into the Earth's umbra. The part of the Moon falling within the umbral shadow dims, but the rest of the Moon remains bright. Partial Lunar Eclipse - When part of the moon enter the umbra, a partial lunar eclipse occurs. Partial penumbral eclipses occur more often, but they tend not to be very well publicized because they are difficult to see. In this type of eclipse, the dimming of the Moon is directly proportional to the area of sunlight blocked by the Earth. The Moon may appear gray or golden and may almost completely disappear at totality. In a total penumbral eclipse, the full moon is entirely shadowed by the Earth's penumbra. During this type of lunar eclipse, the portion of the Moon that is eclipsed appears darker than the rest of the Moon. Penumbral Eclipse - A penumbral eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth's penumbral shadow. In a lunar eclipse, the color of the Moon (refracted light) depends on the alignment between the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The penumbra gets light because the Sun has such a large angular size the sunlight isn't totally blocked. The penumbra is dim, but not completely dark. The umbra is the portion of the shadow that has no solar radiation and is dark. The Earth's shadow consists of two parts. The type of lunar eclipse depends on how much of the Earth's shadow covers the Moon. The shadow of the Earth falls across the face of the Moon. ![]() Ron Miller/Stocktrek Images / Getty ImagesĪ lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is directly between the Sun and the Moon. A diagram illustrating how eclipses are created.
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