That link will take you to the lunar eclipse from April 15, 2014 leading up to Sunday’s eclipse. This one coincided with a full lunar eclipse, in which the moon, Earth, and sun lined up, with Earth’s shadow totally obscuring the moon.
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Did you catch a glimpse of this glorious event?
A supermoon is seen at the finish of a lunar eclipse behind an Orthodox church in Turets, Belarus, 110 kilometers west of capital Minsk on Monday.
According to NASA, the moon appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual by being as near as possible to Earth – a mere 226,000 miles away. Using his knowledge of astronomy, and with help from an almanac he owned, he knew there was an upcoming lunar eclipse a few days later.
Not only is this the best and last opportunity of the year for Americans to witness any kind of eclipse, but this particular phenomenon is extremely rare, happening perhaps five times a century. But the two occur together very infrequently.
Andy Stedman posted: “Unless you have an unbelievable camera the only way to truly capture Supermoon is with your eyes in the moment”. It won’t happen again until 2033.
Lunar eclipses are far more common, usually occurring twice a year. Look for the moon between about 23 and 45 degrees up from the horizon.
It went on until the moon emerged from the Earth’s shadow at 6.24am.
As this light travels through our planet’s gaseous envelope, the green to violet portions get filtered out more than the red portion, with the result that light reaching the lunar surface is predominantly red in colour.
So, the glowing ring is actually the earth’s atmosphere being illuminated by sunrise and sunset around the world.
Total eclipses of Super Full Moons are rare.
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Stargazers in the western half of North America, the rest of Europe and Africa, the Middle East and South Asia did not miss out entirely. This type of eclipse is often mistaken for a normal full Moon.
