Supermoon lunar eclipse: September 27 to see rare blood supermoon and lunar eclipse - TomoNews

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• published: 17 Sep 2015
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WASHINGTON D.C. — A supermoon lunar eclipse, a phenomenon which last occurred more than three decades ago, will be visible to people in the Americas on September 27 and visible to those in Western Europe and parts of Africa early on September 28. A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and moon align to form an exact or near-exact straight line, with the Earth in the middle. The technical term for this alignment is "syzygy", which in Greek means being paired together. While in syzygy, the Earth casts its shadow on the moon's surface. The Earth's shadow is made of an outer part called the Penumbra, a darker, central part called the Umbra, and the Antumbra, an lighter area beyond the Umbra. On September 27, the lunar eclipse will be total, meaning the moon will completely enter the Umbra for one hour and 12 minutes. The moon will not turn completely dark, however. Rather, it will turn reddish, as if hit by sunlight bent by the Earth's atmosphere, a phenomenon known as a blood moon. At the same time, another phenomenon known as a perigee supermoon will also occur. At 252,000 miles from Earth, the moon will be at its apogee, its furthest point from Earth. At its perigee, its closest point to our planet, it is about 226,000 miles away. On September 27, the moon will be at perigee and will appear to be about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than an apogee full moon. This rare supermoon total lunar eclipse, which has occurred only five times since 1900, will be 100 percent visible from start to end in some parts of North America, in all of South America, in Western Europe and western Africa. The event will not be visible in East Asia. ----------------------------------------­--------------------- Welcome to TomoNews, where we animate the most entertaining news on the internets. Come here for an animated look at viral headlines, US news, celebrity gossip, salacious scandals, dumb criminals and much more! Subscribe now for daily news animations that will knock your socks off. Visit our official website for all the latest, uncensored videos: http://us.tomonews.net Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f Get top stories delivered to your inbox everyday: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter Stay connected with us here: Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS Google+ http://plus.google.com/+TomoNewsUS/ Instagram @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus