January Blue Moon Supermoon in Total Eclipse

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Wed 31 Jan 2018 - Thu 01 Feb 2018

When the moon rises on 31 January 2018, it will be a very special moon. For starters, it will be the Full Moon, which is always an impressive sight. But the full moon on its own is not an extraordinary occurrence; after all, it happens every month. Things get more interesting when we get two full moons in one month. The rarity of such an occurrence is captured by the catchphrase "once in a blue moon", with the blue moon referring to the second full moon of the month.

January 2018 will see two full moons: one on 1st January and another on 31st January, which makes the full moon of 31 January a Blue Moon. But the surprises do not end here.

Both January's full moons will be Supermoons . Together with the supermoon in December 2017, they form a series of three back-to-back supermoons. We observe a supermoon when the moon travelling on a slightly elliptical orbit makes the closest approach to Earth and that approach coincides with the full phase of the moon.


Putting all this together, we get the Blue Supermoon. But even this combination, as rare as it sounds, is not all the moon has in store for us.

As it rises in the sky on the night of 31st January, the moon will pass directly between the Earth and the sun and for a few hours, it will be eclipsed by the Earth's shadow. During the eclipse, the moon will undergo a dramatic colour change, turning an alien shade of red. This fascinating colour shift has earned the eclipsed moon a nickname of Blood Moon .


In folklore tradition, the night of the full moon is the time when things go boom in the night. And if any old full moon causes witches to jump on their broomsticks and werewolves to morph into their canine form, then on the night when the once in a Blue Moon Supermoon turns Blood red all bets will be off.

So mark the midnight of January 31 in your calendar and make sure to look at the sky to see the Blue Supermoon turn red in front of your eyes.

In Sydney, the partial eclipse will begin at 10.48pm with the moon gradually getting darker until it reaches total eclipse that will last from 11.51pm to 1.07am, peaking at 12.29am. During this time the moon will take on a rusty or blood red colour. By 2.11am the partial eclipse will end and the moon will return to its bright Blue Supermoon state.

#astronomy
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!date 31/01/2018 -- 01/02/2018
%wnsydney