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| Robert Pearlman | Quick iPhone shot of the Super Blood Wolf Moon lunar eclipse over Houston: | |||||||
| Blackarrow | ...or the "total eclipse of the Moon" as we used to call it. No blood red in the eclipse I saw - as with the last (but one) total lunar eclipse it was very dark, almost invisible. However, some haze and thin cloud may have contributed to that. | |||||||
| oly | There are many images taken of this event that have been posted on news, photography and astronomy websites that show a distinctive dark red colour of the moon during totality. This Astronomy Picture of the Day image shows an excellent sequence of the eclipse and colour change. We had a similar event last year in Australia, which occurred when the mood was at closest proximity to Earth during its orbit. This was commonly referred to as the Super Blood Moon by media and enthusiasts. | |||||||
| canyon42 | The reddish tint was indeed there, but it showed up much better in photos than to the eye. To the eye this eclipse was relatively dark except in the direction toward the edge of the umbra, which had a fairly abrupt light and color transition toward a bluish hue. And yes, the whole "Blood Moon" thing has been embraced by many media outlets, but that still doesn't stop it from being sensationalist hype. | |||||||
| Robert Pearlman | Today's (Jan. 22) Astronomy Picture of the Day is a shot of the eclipse from Cologne, Germany. The caption notes the "Super Blood Wolf Moon" label. Dubbed by some as a Super (because the Moon was angularly larger than usual, at least slightly) Blood (because the scattering of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere makes an eclipsed Moon appeared unusually red) Wolf (because January full moons are sometimes called Wolf Moons from the legend that wolves like to howl at the moon) Moon Eclipse... | |||||||
| Dave_Johnson | Check your images of the eclipse to see if you took any at 04:41:43 UTC. Today's Spaceweather.com is reporting there was a meteor strike on the Moon at that time and there are reported images and videos showing the strike. | |||||||
| Blackarrow | quote:That's a great photo-sequence, but I'm afraid not everybody had such a crystal clear sky. | |||||||
| denali414 | Where we were was a very clear sky (not much light pollution either) and the Moon was distinctly a burnt red color as the Moon got near totality, not bluish or dark. I guess geography and visibility has a lot to do with how seen. | |||||||
| Skythings | quote:Meteoroid seen slamming into the moon during total lunar eclipse. | |||||||
| denali414 | That is a great video, hopefully next time NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter goes over that area can see the new crater. | |||||||
| oly | quote:Have you ever had the opportunity to witness a full lunar eclipse where the Moon's colour changes to a dark red? It is a spectacular sight. | |||||||
| Jonnyed | My wife and I have a relatively decent home telescope and you could definitely see interesting gradations of deeper red at totality. Here's a good diagram that shows that the lower regions of the moon had darker shadows, being deeper into the Earth's umbra for the Jan. 21, 2019 path. | |||||||
| canyon42 | The "blood" part of course refers to the color, but it is still what I'd call a sensationalistic term, and a recent one at that. It apparently stems from a 2013 book that tried to tie a series of four lunar eclipses to a biblical prophecy that would bring about the End of Days. For myself, I'll keep advocating calling it what it is, a total lunar eclipse. | |||||||
| oly | The term "Super Moon" describes a full moon during the closest distance of the moon's orbit, resulting in the moon appearing larger in the sky. It occurs with every full moon at perigee. The term "Blood Moon" is used to describe a full lunar eclipse, whereby the sun's shorter wavelength red light is refracted by Earth's atmosphere, causing the moon to appear red in colour. It occurs at every lunar eclipse, and visible during totality. The term "Wolf Moon" is used to describe the January full moon. These terms have been used by different cultures for many years, but have become more widespread with the advent of the internet and mass newsfeed. The combining of the terms appears to be a recent trend, or has just become more visible via internet news feeds and the media's trend of sensationalising headlines as clickbait. | |||||||
| Blackarrow | quote:Yes, many times. There was a particularly spectacular example about 15 years ago, although our experiences will be different because we live on different sides of this big ball of rock. The recent eclipse isn't a good example (from my point of view) because of haze and increasing cloud, which rendered the fully-eclipsed Moon extremely dark, with no hint of red to the eye. The total lunar eclipse of (I think) 28th September, 2015, was in very clear conditions, but the fully eclipsed Moon was, both optically and on HD video, very dark, certainly the darkest total eclipse I can ever remember. I assume this will vary from location to location because of different atmospheric conditions around the world. | |||||||
| oly | quote:The diagram posted above by Jonnyed indicates that your location may not have been the best to see full red light refraction during totality, with full umbra occurring around moonset. | |||||||
| denali414 | Also the light pollution of your area affects the colors and clarity. The darker sky will result in more color and clarity and closer to big cities you live less likely to see a lot of red. | |||||||
| Glint | A good example of atmospheric effect was in 1982. There were two total lunar eclipses visible from North America that year. The Mexican volcano El Chichon had erupted. The moon coloring was uneven (as predicted by Iota's David Dunham). The northern half of the moon was noticeably darkened due to dust and other aerosols spreading in Earth's northern hemisphere. The December eclipse was even darker. By then the eruption has spread itself worldwide. During totality the moon was a deep dark brown. It was difficult go see with the naked eye without previous knowledge of it's location. | |||||||
| oly | The red colour has more to do with refraction of light than Earth's atmospheric pollution. In a similar way to why we see red sunrise and sunsets. The shorter wavelength red light is refracted more than wider wavelength light, resulting in the red wavelength light illuminating the moon, which is in total direct light shadow, with the red light bending in Earth's atmosphere, to be focused towards the moon, rendering a red tint. Heavy atmospheric pollution is generally confined to lower atmospheric regions, in an area shared with clouds, while fine particulates can extent higher at times. However, even if the atmospheric pollution were to colour shift the light as it passes through the atmosphere, it is still the shorter red wavelength light that refracts greater, giving the moon a red tint. The filtering effect of atmospheric pollution may result in less light making it through the atmosphere, resulting in the moon appearing a darker red colour. (In the same way photographic flash coloured gels produce darker colours when the flash power is lowered.) | |||||||
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