Perigee.

Yesterday we experienced another one of those events designed to make us feel small, stuck as we are on this beautiful globe as it whirls through the cold vacuum of space.  Yikes, lighten up Mr Spaceman.  Every once in a while the earth, moon and sun line up in such a way as to cast shadows upon one another.  In this most recent Total Lunar Eclipse, the earth cast its shadow upon the moon, and due to our atmosphere refracting the sun’s light, it produced this “sunset” effect on the moon.

Photo by Fenton

That is a picture I took of our moon, standing out on the tarmac just past the witching hour freezing my buns off.  The fact that this image looks like it might be *anything*, like a marble or a slice of pepperoni, is a result of my not being able to force the iPhone camera to take a picture of the night sky.  Could be user error, just sayin’. 

The actual image laid down on my analog visual system was spectacular and you’ll just have to trust me on that — or — you can search the internet and find actual pictures taken by real photographers that look like this;

Photo by Dave Wegiel

This is called a blood moon by Captain Obvious and a super blood moon by Herman, God of Heavenly Bodies.  The ‘super’ comes from the fact that the moon was at its closest proximity to earth — its perigee — and thus appeared slightly larger than normal, like the T-rex in your side mirror.  Oh wait, that’s CLOSER.  Dadgum optics <grumble>.

NASA estimates there will be 85 total lunar eclipses this century so there will another sooner or later.  Sky watchers who missed this week’s show will have to wait quite some time before the next total lunar eclipse; on May 26, 2021.  Mark your calendars!