Supermoon lunar eclipse explained

Celestial events continue to fascinate us. Solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, comets and many others have been and still are an intriguing topic and deeply observed events around the world.

One such event took place on September 27/28, Sunday night through Monday, called Blood Moon eclipse, when lunar eclipse overlapped with supermoon.

Supermoon

Wikipedia defines it as the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth.

The term “Supermoon” was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, arbitrarily defined as:

“...a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.”

Al.com explains that the recent Supermoon that occurred on September 27/28 is in fact the fifth one in 2015 alone. But what distinguishes it from the previous ones is that moon will be the closest to Earth in all of 2015, coming within 221,753 miles of our planet.

Lunar Eclipse

The moon does not make its own light; it reflects light it receives from the sun, NASA explains. During a lunar eclipse, the moon appears less and less bright as sunlight is blocked by the Earth’s shadow. As totality approaches, sunlight reaches the moon indirectly and is refracted around the “edges” of Earth, through Earth’s atmosphere. Because of this, almost all colors except red are “filtered” out, and the eclipsed moon appears reddish or dark brown. This filtering is caused by particulates in our atmosphere; when there have been a lot of fires and/or volcanic eruptions, lunar eclipses will appear darker and redder. This eerie -- but harmless -- effect has earned the phenomenon the nickname “blood moon.”

Blood Moon Eclipse

Blood Moon eclipse or Supermoon Lunar Eclipse is a rare event which takes place when a supermoon combines with a lunar eclipse.

The Earth’s shadow began to dim the supermoon and turn it red around 8 p.m.; the total eclipse started around 10:11 p.m., BostonGlobe reported. It was seen Sunday evening, September 27, in the Americas; while in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, it was seen in the early hours of Monday morning, September 28. 

NASA says that the next supermoon eclipse won’t occur until 2033. The last time it happened was in 1982.

Supermoon Eclipse and natural disasters

Since during the supermoon phenomenon, the full moon can be viewed at least 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than normal, question arises about its effect on our planet and whether it will lead to any natural disasters. Astronomers say it will have little effect on the environment. Dr Luke Tyas from the South African Astronomical Observatory said:

“It’s just going to appear redder and darker than usual. So in terms of spooking animals it’s going to have negligible effect. You do get slightly bigger tides when there’s a supermoon but it’s really a matter of two to three centimetres.”