Colorado skywatchers, be ready to experience the rare Super Blue Blood Moon in the early morning of Wednesday, Jan. 31.
This unusual event features:
— A super moon, that is, a full moon that approximately coincides with the closest distance that the moon reaches to Earth, resulting in the moon appearing slightly larger than usual.
— It is also the second full moon of the month, also known as a Blue Moon, which amazingly coincides with ….
— A total lunar eclipse, which is often referred to as a “Blood Moon” due to the reddish color the moon takes when it passes through Earth’s shadow.
“It’s going to be very beautiful, all the Front Range can see the eclipse,” Douglas Duncan, professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder said. “The reason the moon will be orange is the same reason the sky is blue. When a little bit of light from the sun hits the edge of the Earth, the blue light scatters but the red and the orange continue and goes around (the Earth) and hits the moon and makes it look orange.”
People living in the western part of North America, Alaska, and the Hawaiian islands will get the best view of the eclipse according to NASA. The current weather forecast for Denver calls for partly cloudy skies.
The Sunlight Peak Observatory at Front Range Community College will be open from 4:45 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.
There will be no need for a telescope, binoculars, or special glasses according to Clara Wente, professor in the Physics department at Front Range Community College. The lunar eclipse will be visible to anyone on the dark side of the Earth (weather permitting).
The event will be most noticeable starting with the partial eclipse beginning at 4:48 a.m. Earlier than that the penumbral eclipse is occurring, which is a fairly dim shadow and so the moon will still look bright. The full eclipse begins at 5:52 a.m. and ends at 7:08 a.m., just before the moon sets, Wente said.
If you miss the Jan. 31 eclipse, you will have to wait another year for the next opportunity in North America. The Jan. 21, 2019 lunar eclipse will only be a supermoon however, not a blue moon, according to NASA.
