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On Sept 27, we will witness a rare celestial event – a Supermoon overlaid by a total lunar eclipse also known as a Blood Moon.
Astronomers recommend star gazers to get their cameras ready for action as the phenomenon would not happen again until 2033. Moreover the least time such an intriguing event ruled the night skies was 32 years ago.
During a lunar eclipse the Earth is located between its moon and the sun. As a result, our planet’s shadow is cast upon moon’s surface which gets a little reddish hue in the process. This is why total lunar eclipses are dubbed ‘blood moons.’
Alan MacRobert, senior editor at Sky and Telescope magazine, explained that the reddish tint is caused by sunlight that is skimmed and bend through our planet’s atmosphere. The same phenomenon happens during every sunset and sunrise we witness on Earth.
The Blood moon will begin around 10:10 p.m. EDT on Sunday, and astronomers estimate that it would unfold for one hour and 12 minutes. It can be seen from both Americas, Africa, Europe and West Asia.
People on the East Coast will be fortunate enough to witness all the stages of the eclipse, if the sky won’t get cloudy. On the West coast, when the moon reaches horizon the first stage would be already in progress.
You can marvel at the rare cosmic event with no protective equipment. Solar eclipses need special goggles because of harmful solar radiation that can permanently damage your eyes. But with blood moons it isn’t the case.
The moniker Supermoon means that we will experience a super-sized moon because it is really close to Earth. Astronomers said that moon’s orbit is not perfectly round, so sometimes it gets closer to our planet than other times. That’s when a Supermoon occurs.
Noah Petro a NASA scientists explained that the moon doesn’t “grow” larger. It is just an optical illusion we experience because of unusual proximity.
“It’s not dramatic, but it does look larger,”
Petro added.
To be more precise the moon would appear 14 percent larger than usual. But highly unusual is for a supermoon to occur at the same time with a blood moon. NASA records show that only five events occurred in the last century – 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982. This is why several rabbis and neo-protestant ministers are concerned that the event may be an omen for something significant in the history of humanity.
Image Source: Wikipedia
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