The entire country will be looking to the skies on Wednesday night as a once in a lifetime lunar trifecta will turn the moon an eerie blood red.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The super blue blood moon will see three phenomena occur simultaneously, and the good news is that Australia has the best seat in the universe.
On that night the second full moon of the month, the blue moon, will reach its closest distance to earth, some 25,000km closer than average, making the moon appear 30 per cent brighter and larger.
At the same time a full lunar eclipse will occur which will see the moon pass directly through the Earth’s shadow as the sun, moon, and Earth align.
As the moon slides completely into the shadow, the outlying rays of sunlight, particularly the red spectrum refracts around the earth to give the moon a blood red hue that has been fascinating man kind for millennia.
Fortunately the super blue blood eclipse is perfectly safe to look at with the naked eye, although unfortunately, particularly for the Tamworth Astronomy Club, a cloudy night has been forecast which may take away from the full effect.
The club are hoping to photograph the occurrence with their prized possession, one of only two Hewitt Cameras in the world.
The camera dates back to the 1960’s and was built to track Russian missiles and satellites during the Cold War, although that also gave it ideal capabilities to track solar and lunar events as well.
In 1982 one of the cameras made its way to the observatory at Coonabarabran, and when it was decommissioned some years after three Tamworth astronomy enthusiasts bought it, and re-built it, including recently replacing the camera with a new digital camera to further improve its capability.
It is currently stored at Andromeda Industries in Moonbi, which has become the temporary home to the local Astronomy Club.
Club member and lunar enthusiast Chris Wyatt said that on Wednesday night “the real action starts during the umbral stage, when the more noticeable darker portion of the Earth’s shadow starts to creep across the lunar surface at 10:47pm.”
“The moon will gradually be swallowed by the umbra until it is fully immersed and bathed in the deep reddish glow from sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere as totality begins at 11:50pm,” he said.
The full eclipse will last until 1.09am, until the eclipse completely ends at 3.10pm.
“The event is entirely safe to view and photograph. Telescopic observers may witness a few lunar occultations of background stars during the event,” Mr Wyatt said.
“These are fun to watch and demonstrate the motion of the Moon in the sky.”
