and the moon was full - 31 January 2018

and the moon was full - 31 January 2018 - blue moon lunar eclipse

The moon was a balloon on Wednesday 31 January 2018, when a total lunar eclipse occurred during a blue moon.

A total lunar eclips occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, blocking sunlight from reaching the moon. The total lunar eclipse will occur at the same time as a blue moon – the term given to the second full moon of the calendar month.

The last time this occurred was 35 years ago. Ernest Wright, a programmer in the Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and Fred Espenak, an eclipse expert and retired NASA astrophysicist, said the last total lunar eclipse during a super blue moon was on 30 December 1982.

The moon does not appear blue - it still looks dark brown or grey.

During a super moon — like the one that occurred on 1 January 2018, when the moon was closer to Earth than it will be for all of 2018 — the moon appears about 15% larger than usual and 30% brighter. Some scientists only use the term “super moon” to describe the single closest full moon in a 14-month cycle, but NASA uses the term more broadly to describe a full moon that occurs within 90% of the moon’s closest approach to Earth. Because the moon’s orbit around Earth is elliptical, its distance from Earth is not fixed. Instead, it fluctuates between 225,600 miles and 252,100 miles, on average, according to Ernest Wright.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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