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