So, this happened last night:
What if I told you there was a full moon last night? Not very impressive, right? I agree.
What if I told you that it was the “May FLOWER Full Moon?” A Flower moon is named so by the time of year when the plants, and flowers, bloom. It has other names, as do every full moon, depending on where you live around the world.
OK, still not interesting, hmmm?
If I added that it was the “May Flower SUPER full moon”, It might start to sound better.
A SUPER MOON means the moon is in Perigee, or at its closest approach to earth, in its orbit, and it may appear a slightly larger than a normal moon. Apogee would be the farthest away from earth and appear smaller.
But wait…there’s more!
This month’s moon is also a “May Flower Super BLOOD moon”. Now, that may draw your attention.
A Blood moon is when the Moon turns a reddish hue when it’s completely submerged in the Earth’s shadow, also called the UMBRA or the darkest part of a shadow. The PENUMBRA is the out part or lightest part of a shadow.
This brings us to some interesting observations..
While we were sleeping last night, there was a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE that was visible all across North America. The Earth was positioned squarely between the Sun and the Moon, blocking out the Sun’s light from reaching the Full Moon. This only happens a couple of times a year.
When the Eclipse is said to be a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE, it means the Earth, is positioned perfectly between the two Heavenly bodies, the Sun and Moon, casting It’s shadow on the moon, and the only light reaching the Moon, is the sunlight that reflects off the edges of Earth, scattering the light through Earth’s atmosphere, like a prism. As the sunlight passes through Earth’s atmosphere, they get filtered and scattered. The shorter light wavelengths get refracted and redirected towards the Moon. These shorter wavelengths are primarily orange and red in color. Therefore, as seen from Earth, the pale Moon suddenly appears a reddish, or copper hue, hence a “Blood Moon”.
So now we have a “MAY FLOWER SUPER BLOOD FULL MOON TOTAL ECLIPSE”. Whew, that’s a lot for a moon to do. This only happens a couple of times a year when the Sun, Moon, and Earth are perfectly aligned.
Now for the WOW factor.
When the eclipse is in totality, if you were standing on the Moon, looking back at Earth, you would see a ring of orange or red light emitting all around the Earth, where the atmosphere extends into space and in essence, be watching EVERY SUNRISE AND EVERY SUNSET ON EARTH at the same time. To me, that’s pretty amazing. Isn’t our Universe simply AWESOME? Photo by Richard Miller
