The Super Moon Blood Moon
Lunar Tetrad
Total lunar eclipses are rare – only about one in three lunar eclipses are total. About four to five total eclipses can be seen at any place on Earth in a decade.
Every once in a while, four total lunar eclipses happen in a row. This is called a lunar tetrad. The total lunar eclipses happen 6 months apart. There are at least six full Moons between two total lunar eclipses in a tetrad.
Tonight’s Supermoon Blood Moon will be the last time the two stunning lunar events will coincide for 18 years.
For the first time this century, tonight will see a Supermoon, when it is close to Earth and therefore unusually big and bright, that will coincide with a lunar eclipse, where the Earth moves between the sun and the moon and scatters the light so that the moon turns red. And it won’t happen again until 2033.
Supermoons aren’t uncommon, and lunar eclipses happen less often but also aren’t rare. But the collision of the two is very uncommon — it’s only happened five times since 1900, the most recent of which was in 1982.
Click Llink to watch the video for Nasa’s explanation of why the spectacle happens:
The first three total eclipses in this lunar tetrad occurred on
The last eclipse of the tetrad will occur on September 28, 2015.
Facts about the rare Supermoon Eclipse of September 27/ 28, 2015
All four total lunar eclipses are visible from most of the United States.
According to NASA, the current century – 2001 to 2100 – will have eight tetrads. The first tetrad of the 21st century took place in 2003, and the second will happen in 2014-2015. The first eclipses in each of these tetrads will occur between March and May.
Rare Series of Eclipses
Italian Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli calculated that the occurrence of such tetrads varies over centuries. Some 300 year intervals have several lunar tetrads, while other 300 year intervals do not have any. For example, the years between 1852 and 1908 did not have any tetrads, whereas the next 3 centuries will have 17 tetrads.
The Eclipses are Being Called Blood Moons
In recent years, the term Blood Moon has become popular when referring to the total lunar eclipses of the 2014-2015 lunar tetrads. When the Earth eclipses a full Moon, the direct sunlight is blocked, but the sun’s rays still light up the moon. This light, however, has travelled through the Earth’s atmosphere first, and sometimes causes the totally eclipsed Moon to look red or brownish.
Why does the Moon look red during a total lunar eclipse?
Another End-of-the-world Prophecy?
Some people believe that the tetrad has special significance because the eclipses coincide with important Jewish festivals. The two April lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015 occurred at the same time as Passover, while the October and September eclipses occur during the Feast of Tabernacle. This, many suggest, may be connected to a biblical prophecy of the end of times.
The fact is, eight of the tetrads since the first century have coincided with Jewish holidays without the world going under, so there is absolutely no reason to believe that the 2014-2015 tetrad will end the world this time either.