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Blue moon , what dIdnt happen?

magicwatch 7 Jan 31
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The attached photo is an overlay I made with the moon at its furthest distance from Earth over one at its nearest distance (I.e., a "supermoon", or one at perigee). It's not ovely discernable to the naked eye; any moon near the horizon will look larger due to having earthbound objects st a distance that makes them seem small in comparison. The 'blue' is in reference to it being the 2nd full moon in a calandar month and not it's color. The "blood" during an eclipse is from the halo of sunset light reaching the moon when the earth is blocking the direct sunlight from hitting the "full" moon. None of these things are particularly rare, the media just hypes it and the general public buys into it. It is rare they all coincided at once, but it's not really an exceptional event overall. Sorry.

Both images I started with are my own.

To give further example why these things aren't special, the full moon of March 1st is also a supermoon, almost as close as this one. The next blue moon is March 31st this year. The next lunar eclipse is in July, it will be visible in the UK at moonrise (or to put it another way, at sunset--look for it in the sky opposite to where the sun sets), and it will be when the moon is smallest--but on the horizon, it will still look big. It may be hard to spot, though, as it will be lit only by the sunset halo of earth, so comparatively dark. You will find it fastest by looking in the sky DIRECTLY opposite from where the sun sets, so if you get somewhere and stay put before sunset, look at where your shadow is pointing, and remember that spot on the horizon. It will rise exactly as the sun is setting, if the two horizons are level (no large hills or mountains in either direction.

Here's an image of a moon rising at sunset just before it would been total (maybe an hour) It was a "minimoon" (apogee)., the opposite of a supermoon. It didn't look mini on the horizon when it rose.

edit, the moon was approaching totality, rather. I corrected the text.

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I didn't bother looking lol

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Hi Coffeo. "Some places didn't get to see it at all (including the UK)." Hold on. What are you saying ? Are you suggesting that the earth is round ? 😛

is it lol?

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I can't see it, it is cloudy here.

JK666 Level 7 Jan 31, 2018
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Blue moon isn't blue. Its just a name for the 2nd full moon in any one month.

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Not sure what you mean. I just know I saw it this morning, and everything happened ...

partial eclipse, much larger than usual, and a gorgeous red tint that occurred just before it set !

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I believe you needed to look for it at a certain time depending on where you live.

That is correct. Some places didn't get to see it at all (including the UK). Many places just saw partial. Here it was total: I got up at midnight to see it. Quite good (but not blue, of course, as @Dick_Martin pointed out).

@Coffeo We saw it here, too! (See the last two photos in this gallery - [bbc.co.uk]

@Jnei I am fairly sure both are uneclipsed supermoon shots. The redness of the Hull one is probably atmospheric. Here's a visibility chart — they don't usually get these wrong!

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