Be there outdoors the moment evening sets in on 31 January 2018.  A rare phenomenon, that of the Blue Moon, Super Moon and Blood will all be witnessed consecutively this evening.  The phenomenon has been termed the “Super Moon Trilogy” by NASA.  The evening of 31 Jan, will be the confluence of the Super Moon, the Blue Moon and the Blood Moon, creating a rare phenomenon in the sky – and Udaipur will get to see it!

The Super Moon, which occurred earlier on 3 Dec 2017 and 1 Jan 2018, is basically full moon phenomenon that happens when Earth and Moon are at their closest OR near to their closest positions (called “perigee“).  This makes the Moon appear 14% larger and upto 30% brighter in the evening sky.  Since 1 Jan was a Super Moon, there is another full moon night on 31 Jan, which makes it two full moons in the same month (called Blue Moon), something that occurs every two and a half years. So the full moon will be a Super Moon as well as a Blue Moon.

What makes this evening more interesting, is the fact that Super Moon and the Blue Moon are coinciding with a Total Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday, i.e. 31 Jan.  The Earth, when passing between the Sun and Moon, will cast a shadow on the Moon, giving it a reddish tinge.

This confluence of events has led NASA to name the phenomenon happening tomorrow as the Super Blue Blood Moon Trilogy.

In India, the eclipse will start around 17:18 IST. It will be total at 18:21 hours and remain totally eclipsed till 19:37.

Then after, the total eclipse will end and the Moon will slowly come out of the shadow of the Earth, the partial eclipse ending around 20:41 hrs. The totality of the eclipse will last for about 1 hour and 16 minutes.

In the case of the 27 September 2015 event, the perigee between Earth and the moon occurred within two hours of the eclipse making it more “super” than this one.

Ambiguity of the term “supermoon” aside, the claim that there will be a slightly closer full moon during a lunar eclipse that happens to be the second full moon of the month on 31 January 2018 is true.

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