Supermoon Lunar Eclipse Puts on a Show

Doom-mongering had been particularly ramped up as this lunar eclipse combined with a supermoon.

A total lunar eclipse happens when the full moon passes through the umbra, the darkest part of Earth’s shadow.

A passage in the Bible’s Book of Joel says: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the awful day of the Lord comes”. At close proximity, the “supermoon” appears 14% larger in diameter.

In a nutshell, what we got to witness was a freakishly big Moon that, being in Earth’s shadow, also appeared a tad reddish.

Given the right atmospheric conditions, a blood moon happens when the moon turns red colour for a couple of hours.

Sunday’s spectacle will be visible to stargazers in North America, South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to Popular Science.

As per experts, there is no danger in watching a supermoon total lunar eclipse with the naked eye unlike a solar eclipse.

During a lunar eclipse, the Earth is essentially throwing shade on the moon.

The term “supermoon” is not scientific, but instead was coined by an astrologer who defines it as when the moon is within 90 percent of its closest approach of Earth.

The supermoon eclipse marked the end of a tetrad, a series of four total lunar eclipses each occurring about six months apart. But that shadow isn’t ideal, and faint sunbeams sneak around Earth’s edges on all sides in the color of a sunset. It was the first time Sunday that the events have made a twin appearance since 1982, and they won’t again until 2033.

A supermoon and total lunar eclipse had Astoria, and the rest of the world, skygazing Sunday night.