When and where to see the Super Blood Moon in a total lunar eclipse this week

Skygazers will be treated to a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday, May 26, when the Moon passes through Earth’s shadow and it’ll appear particularly large and reddish in color. The so-called Super Blood Moon will slowly darken over a few hours as it travels through different parts of Earth’s shadow: traveling through the …

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Pacific Rim

Is Uranus visible?

[ShadowSystems]

Re: Pacific Rim

Yes & it makes my asteroids flare up something aweful. Sometimes it feels like a ring of fire, but then I'll use medication to cool the reentry burn. =-)p

[Neil Barnes]

Oh come *on*...

Bad enough that UK weather always gets in the way of interesting astronomical phenomena, but when it (a) extends all the way to my new house in Germany and (b) actually includes the whole damn planet, then I start to begin to think about the possibility of considering that it's plotting against me!

[the Jim bloke]

Re: Oh come *on*...

Perhaps we have our UK brethren to blame for the delusion that "the Cloud" is a stable and persistent environment, rather than just "somebody-else's-computer"

[Chris G]

Re: Oh come *on*...

Disappointing considering I recently overhauled and polished my four incher.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Oh come *on*...

The performance of said 4-incher will be considerably improved by lubrication and a good mounting.

[jake]

Re: Oh come *on*...

"The performance of said 4-incher will be considerably improved by lubrication and a good mounting."

Not necessarily. I watched a guy use an aerosol lubricant on the pot-metal adjustment screws on the back of his 1960s Edmund Scientific 6 incher. Ruined the reflective surface ... on the bright side, re-silvering didn't cost very much.

_{Sorry, even HE doesn't know what he was thinking!}

[X5-332960073452]

Re: Oh come *on*...

Hi Jake, nice post, but isn't the standard response - whoosh ?

[jake]

Re: Oh come *on*...

Just taking the opportunity to pass along a little anecdote that may or may not prove useful to somebody someday.

[jake]

Alarm?

"set your alarms for 1118 UTC (0418 PT, 2118 AEST)."

No need for an alarm. One of the indoor/outdoor cats will wake me to let me know something's up ... if I'm not awake anyway. I often am at that hour.

[Arthur the cat]

Stupid names

Is anyone else fed up with the whole <random intensifier> <random noun> Moon naming nonsense?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Stupid names

Not random.

Super moons are a thing. Blood moons are a thing. Super blood moons are a thing. These terms are not random or made up just now.

IMHO you should make an effort to see stuff like this, it adds texture to life.

[ThatOne]

Re: Stupid names

> These terms are not random or made up just now.

Indeed. For millennia the moon was the only interesting thing to watch after sunset, so people had devised several "special moons".

Obviously modern skyless and nightless city dwellers have progressively forgotten about them, but they did exist for centuries, and the "Blood Moon" is the most well-known among them.

Maybe along with the "Blue Moon", which is an additional full moon in a year (13 instead of the usual 12). Farmer's Almanacs used to keep track of those... What's the point you might ask, to which I'd be tempted to reply it's the same as with a lot of our modern infatuations.

[jake]

Re: Stupid names

"Indeed. For millennia the moon was the only interesting thing to watch after sunset"

Of course. That's why all the visible planets are named after the Gods, and various other astronomical phenomena all have special places in myth and legend ...and yet Luna/Selene/et ali was usually named after a second-class, female goddess, usually the consort of the Sun.

"Maybe along with the "Blue Moon", which is an additional full moon in a year"

Actually, it was originally an extra full moon in any one calendar quarter. Today, since roughly the 1940s, it represents an extra full moon in any one month. Precise etymology unknown, but possibly originated in the fertile mind of the editor of the Maine Farmer's Almanac in the mid 1800s.

While I'm at it, the term "Super Moon" originated in Dell Publishing's "Horoscope" magazine in 1979. Now THIS one is truly a stupid name, for all kinds of reasons. Almost as stupid as the term "king tide".

[Arthur the cat]

Re: Stupid names

IMHO you should make an effort to see stuff like this, it adds texture to life.

Seeing this one from the UK is going to be a bit difficult, there will be a bloody great lump of rock in the way. However, you're talking to someone who spent a couple of decades chasing eclipses, and a total solar eclipse beats a lunar eclipse every time.

[jake]

Re: Stupid names

It's actually a rather small bit of rock, as such things go.

Here's a picture of it. ... The family portrait's also worth pondering.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Stupid names

"Don't miss the last chance to see <planetary phenomena> this <millennia/century/decade/year/month/since last Friday>"

(tm) Daily Mail

[herman]

Rain, rain, rain...

Well, the moon sure is very nice and bright and seeing that it was raining for the past two weeks, it is even nicer to behold.