Cool Facts about the Blood Moon

The Blood Moon on 9/27/2015 is a very rare lunar eclipse that happens about once every 18 years.  It isn’t just a normal lunar eclipse.  A normal lunar eclipse is just when the moon gets behind the Earth and sunlight gets blocked from reaching the moon.  The Blood Moon, however, is a lunar eclipse that happens when the moon is at its perigee (closest distance from Earth).  This makes it a “Supermoon Eclipse,” or as we call it, “The Blood Moon.”  The reason we call it a Blood Moon is because of the reddish color it gets when this phenomenon happens.  It gets the reddish color from the same mechanism that causes the colors of a sunrise or sunset.  The mechanism is called “Rayleigh Scattering.”  The Blood Moon on 9/27 is also going to be on our Harvest Moon as well.  The Harvest Moon is the first full moon of Fall.  One of the best things about this moon is that people in the Eastern and Central Standard Time in the United States will get the absolute best view of the Blood Moon.  People on the West Coast will be missing out on the beginning of the Blood Moon.  Unfortunately, that is if the weather lets you see it (it is currently cloudy outside).  If you didn’t know, lunar eclipses happen two weeks before or after a solar eclipse.  This time the solar eclipse was two weeks earlier on 9/13.  If you missed the solar eclipse, and this Blood Moon, I have bad news for you… The Blood Moon is the last eclipse of 2015.  There will be no more eclipses.  Hopefully you will be able to see the Blood Harvest Moon in all it’s glory!