Super Blue Blood Moon
A rarest of the
rare celestial spectacle - an unusual Lunar eclipse took place on the evening
of Jan-31st , which was a combination of Super moon, Blue moon,
and Blood moon (due to Lunar eclipse).
That evening I
was lucky enough to witness this spectacular event but it was visible to me
only from the blood moon phase only. I couldn’t witness the full moon drifting
into the shadow of Earth and then finally becoming the blood moon.
Below is a brief
account of the spectacle in my own words :
I reached home early that evening of
Jan-31st, and was up in the terrace of my house to witness this spectacle from
6:20PM onwards. The proposed time in Trivandrum was from 6:17PM onwards. But
unfortunately there was no trace of moon anywhere in the evening sky or
anywhere as far as the eastern horizon which I could see from the housetop.
Much later, after 7:00PM (after
nightfall), towards the horizon, I spotted a pale red coloured moon 'fading in'
into the night sky. It was pale blood red colour, and it's one half was almost
dark. The eclipse had started, and the moon was blinded by the shadow of Earth,
and as it emerged from the shadow it was blood red in colour. I started viewing
it from the blood moon phase onwards.
When I caught a glimpse of this
celestial extravaganza, it started as a dull red blood coloured moon which was
camouflaged against the grey night sky, with most of the moon in dark grey and
a pink tinge colour and also with a reddish area at the bottom right of the
sphere. The moon was just drifting out of the dark shadow of the Earth and
forming a full dark blood red sphere and slowly the blood red colour started
diffusing into bright orange colour. It stood as a dull reddish orange sphere
and slightly the bottom border of the sphere started becoming brighter with the
bottom right hemispherical surface outlined brightly in the night sky.
Then like a diamond on a diamond ring, a
small speck of the moon appeared in the middle of the bright outline, and it
started becoming brighter. By this time the entire colour of the moon faded
from dull blood red into bright orange. The "bright speck" on moon
started growing, and it began spreading slowly over the surface, with more and
more brightened surface appearing. The colour changed further from orange into
bright yellow and then into milky white as it advanced. More & more moon
surface was revealed with the grey area decreasing rapidly as it progressed. As
it progressed from quarter moon to half-moon, the yellowish colour had changed
completely into milky white. Beyond half-moon it looked like a round scoop of
dark chocolate placed on a round white cup, and the dark chocolate decreased as
it progressed - (as if the night sky was sucking the chocolate off the bright
white round cup). Finally as most of the moon was revealed, it looked like a
ball ice-cream with the dark lid at the top. Finally, the entire grey at the
top was sucked into the night sky, and the full moon shone brightly in full
splendour.
It was an amazing and rare spectacle and
it was the very first time in my life, I was observing a lunar eclipse.
Here is a video from you-tube on this rare celestial
phenomena:
Penned down by,
Suveen Jacob Abraham.
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