Look out for a Super Blood Moon!

On May 26, 2021, for countries around the Pacific Rim—including much of western North America, Australasia and New Zealand — there will be a special event visible in our skies! A wonderful 'Super Blood Moon' may be seen at about 9.11 pm AEST - a total lunar eclipse.

This occurs when the Sun, the Earth and the Moon are in a perfectly straight line, and the Moon is fully obscured by Earth’s shadow, giving it a reddish hue. It will the first total lunar eclipse since January 2019.

 

A lunar eclipse Credit: in-the-sky.org via en.wikipedia.com

As you know, there is a full moon every 29 days. However, this particular event will be remarkable because it is, in fact, two co-inciding events – a Super Moon, when the moon is at its closest to the Earth, and therefore appears extra bright and extra large – and a Blood Moon, where the shadow of the Earth covers the Moon, making it appear an orange/red colour.

The short video below explains how this phenomenon occurs:

The Moon will only be in the Earth’s central shadow, the umbra, for a total of 14 minutes and 30 seconds, so you will only have a fairly short time to see it, depending on where you live, and the amount of cloud cover at the time.

But it will be visible for up to an hour as it moves out of the Earth's wider shadow, the penumbra, as shown in the diagram above. Do let us know if you were able to see it, and send us any photos you may be able to snap!

But don’t worry if you miss the Super Blood Moon on 26th of May as you may have another chance to see another Super Moon on 24th of June 2021. The Super Strawberry Moon will be entirely visible for observers in eastern Africa, the Middle East, southern Asia, and Australia.

The June Super Moon is named after the wild strawberries that start to ripen during this month in the northern hemisphere.

Here is a short video clip of the Strawberry Full Moon which occurred in June 2019:

Good luck! - We wish you the best of viewing conditions!

Thank you Julie for bringing us this special alert post. It is very wet down here in Melbourne at the moment so fingers crossed that the clouds will disappear long enough to see the Super Blood Moon. I believe that if you live in Melbourne it will appear in the eastern sky.

And more good news as we welcome in A.W. in Australia - as our newest subscriber.