Blood Moon Supermoon

As many people will be aware, in the very early hours of 28 September (for the UK) we were treated to the incredible sight of a ‘Blood Moon Supermoon’ where a 'Blood Moon' coincided with a ‘Supermoon’ making the event an even more spectacular as well as relatively rare occurrence.

The phenomenon of a ‘Blood Moon’ occurs when the sun, Earth and moon are in alignment, with the moon the opposing side of the Earth from the sun so that the Earth blocks light from the sun from illuminating the moon, resulting in a total lunar eclipse  – the moon is entirely in the Earth’s shadow. The limited light that does reach the moon has passed through the Earth’s atmosphere. Green through to violet light of the colour spectrum is scattered more than red through filtration and refraction as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere leaving more red light than other colours remaining to illuminate the moon’s surface.

A ‘supermoon’ occurs when the moon is at its closest to Earth on its orbit and this also coincides with a full moon – the moon at this time appears larger and brighter than at other times.

The next time these events are predicted to coincide again won’t be until the year 2033, so with perfectly clear skies predicted (hooray!!!) I made the effort to set an alarm for a little before 3am to watch this rare event. This was the view from our garden at 03.13am this morning.

Blood moon supermoon, Cheshire, UK 28/9/15 at 03.13 am