Super Blood Wolf Moon Ellipse

Mark Your Calendars! A Super Blood Wolf Moon Ellipse will happen this month!!!! This rare lunar trifecta will be visible in the Americas, Iceland, Greenland, Western Europe, and West Africa on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21, depending on the time zone. The total phase of this total lunar eclipse will be visible from North and South America, Europe and western Africa. Central and eastern Africa and Asia will see a partial eclipse of the Moon. Oh, meow is me, Mr. M would have loved this, but I’m certain he’ll be watching from his side of the rainbow.

In case you don’t understand why this is so amazing, I shall attempt to break this event down, word by word. The super is as in ‘supermoon’, which is when a full moon occurs while the moon is at or near its closest point to us as it orbits Earth. Blood is as in blood moon, mentioned above, and wolf moon is just the nickname for a full moon in January, so that part has no real bearing on anything, but meowser, does Saphera like that point! We’ll also have a total lunar eclipse, which means the sun, earth and moon will be in a straight line for a short time, while the moon is also at it’s closest point to earth…. It seems reasonable that this alignment could affect our planet somehow, at least the tides.
If you’re interested in seeing an animated eclipse map, click here …. I did. and would you believe it will go smack dab over me??? This is the timeline that site generated for my purrsonal home:
Penumbral Eclipse begins atJan 20 at 9:36:29 pm
Maximum Eclipse will be at Jan 21 at 12:12:14 am
Eclipse will end at Jan 21 at 2:48:02 am
I’m hoping there aren’t any clouds between 9:36pm and 2:48 a.m.!!!!

Last year, during the supermoon, Dawn2Dawn Photography took this amazing photo:

The supermoon for the ages came this week and Monument Valley was an iconic place to observe and photograph. The moon was big but maybe not so super, after all, it’s only 14 % bigger than a normal full moon. The most difficult aspect of photographing the very bright moon is ensuring that you expose.

via Monument Valley Supermoon — dawn2dawn photography
AND one of M’s last posts included Michael Frye’s amazing time-eclipse photo in August of 2007

Tidbits:
The magnitude of the eclipse is 1.195.
The penumbral magnitude of the eclipse is 2.168.
The total duration of the eclipse is 5 hours, 12 minutes.
The total duration of the partial phases is 2 hours, 15 minutes.
The duration of the full eclipse is 1 hour, 2 minutes.

By the way, if I learned anything from Mr. M, I learned that an eclipse NEVER COMES ALONE! For instance, a solar eclipse always occurs about two weeks before or after a lunar eclipse. Usually, there are two eclipses in a row, but other times, there are three during the same eclipse season.

Purrseidon