A once in a 150-year phenomenon, the Super Blue Blood Moon is here. As the name suggests, the moon is going to look super-sized and much brighter than usual. Blue and bloody? Not so much. We explore why it is named Super Blue Blood Moon and how you can watch it on your television, computer or even your phone. A Super Blue Blood Moon is simply put a fancy lunar eclipse. If you go back to high school science class, you'll remember that a lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is perfectly positioned between the sun and the moon. Perfect positioning would result in the Earth throwing its shadow on the moon. Occurring only on full moon nights, a lunar eclipse lasts for a much longer duration than a solar eclipse and is usually visible from anywhere on Earth. Well, anywhere where the moon is visible at that hour! Scientifically speaking, there is no such thing as a Blood Moon. The term has come into pop culture due to the way the moon adopts a reddish hue. The reddish hue is of course due to the phenomenon of Rayleigh scattering. Rayleigh scattering is once again, a throwback to high school physics. Think of ...
Wednesday, 31 January 2018
What Is a Super Blue Blood Moon and How to Watch It
A once in a 150-year phenomenon, the Super Blue Blood Moon is here. As the name suggests, the moon is going to look super-sized and much brighter than usual. Blue and bloody? Not so much. We explore why it is named Super Blue Blood Moon and how you can watch it on your television, computer or even your phone. A Super Blue Blood Moon is simply put a fancy lunar eclipse. If you go back to high school science class, you'll remember that a lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is perfectly positioned between the sun and the moon. Perfect positioning would result in the Earth throwing its shadow on the moon. Occurring only on full moon nights, a lunar eclipse lasts for a much longer duration than a solar eclipse and is usually visible from anywhere on Earth. Well, anywhere where the moon is visible at that hour! Scientifically speaking, there is no such thing as a Blood Moon. The term has come into pop culture due to the way the moon adopts a reddish hue. The reddish hue is of course due to the phenomenon of Rayleigh scattering. Rayleigh scattering is once again, a throwback to high school physics. Think of ...
