Total Lunar Eclipse (Super Blue Blood Moon), January 31, 2018


Yesterday sister sent me a request over an e-mail if I could print some document for her. Of course I wanted to grant her wish immediately only to find out after first page being printed, a black cartridge was out. Since it was only 6 pm and the nearest shop that sells cartridges was still open for an hour, I decided to take a walk. It was a nice weather outside, low temperatures (7 °C) felt refreshing, and after a few steps I glanced up in the sky. I noticed bright clouds and at first thought they are just high enough for sun still reaching them. But after some distance, when house rooftops cleared from my view, I saw the reason. It was a full moon, slightly bigger than usual and brighter.

Till than I knew nothing about the phenomena which is quite unusual for me since I spent a lot of time behind computer due to my profession. So I should’ve been able to spot the news by then on news portal and social media. It turned out this was a total lunar eclipse, also know as a full blue blood moon. This means:

  • super: full or new moon that is more or less closest to the shortest distance between Moon and Earth,
  • blue: has nothing to do with the colour. Refers to second full moon in a month or 3rd or 4th in a season.
  • blood: due to its reddish colour. It happens because sunlight reflects from Earth and its atmosphere filters and scatters green and violet lights on spectrum more than red.