Mega-Harvest-Blood Moon Total Eclipse!

[gwillybj]

Mega-Harvest-Blood Moon Total Eclipse!
by Bob Berman
September 10, 2015

Get ready for the . . . Mega-Harvest-Blood Moon Total Eclipse! It's coming up—one of the biggest sky events of 2015. Make sure you're sitting down, because this is a lot to handle all at once.

On Sunday September 27, it's not just the Harvest Moon. It's not even just the closest and largest Moon of the entire year. Added to all that, the Moon goes into a total lunar eclipse at the same time. And it's visible from your front yard. Or back yard. Doesn't matter.

It will be a wonderful thing to observe, and we'll get into the whats, hows, and cool details next week. For now, let's look at the wilder aspects that the media are already latching onto.

-- You see, astronomers may say that when the Moon comes close to us it has reached its "perigee." But the media, at least the past few years, calls a nearby moon a "MegaMoon." And if it happens on the same night it's full, then watch out: We Have a Mega Full Moon.

-- That's not all. When the full Moon goes into Earth's shadow, astronomers call it a total lunar eclipse. Typically happens every year or two. But the media have started referring to this event as a "Blood Moon." Maybe that derives from several Bible passages, such as Revelation 6:12:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

—which kind of suggests that the end of the world is approaching.



No matter that a fully eclipsed moon actually turns coppery red like a penny, more like orange, and not remotely red like blood. Anyone with blood the color of an eclipsed moon should go to the emergency room. None of that matters. What's important is that you're going to increasingly  hear about this event during the coming days, and it may sound like something scary or dangerous. Mega-Harvest-Blood Moon. If this doesn't get the coyotes howling, nothing will.

It's not dangerous—although we really can expect the year's highest and lowest tides that day and the next. But you do want to watch it. We'll tell you all about how close is the Moon, the exact timing, what to look for and all sort of juicy hints and tidbits right here, next week.

http://www.almanac.com/blog/astronomy-blog/mega-harvest-blood-moon-total-eclipse