Blood Moon is rare treat for nighttime skywatchers

Cayman News | 28/09/2015

Blood Moon from Grand Cayman 27 September 2015 (Photo by Daniel DeFinis)

(CNS): On Sunday night residents and visitors to the Cayman Islands were able to see a rare and beautiful total lunar eclipse of a supermoon, also called a Blood Moon, as the Sun, Earth, and the Moon lined up in space. The eclipse lasted about an hour and 12 minutes and was visible from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific, according to NASA. A few clouds in the sky frustrated some nighttime skywatchers but those who persisted enjoyed a rare treat.

From Grand Cayman the penumbral eclipse began around 6:12pm, the partial eclipse at 8:07pm and the full eclipse lasted between 9:11pm and 10:23pm, peaking at 9:47pm. The partial eclipse ended at 11:27pm and the penumbral eclipse ended at 22 minutes past midnight. (See details on timeanddate.com)

According to NASA, it has been more than 30 years since the two astronomical phenomena converged — the supermoon and a total lunar eclipse. A supermoon is where a full moon or a new moon comes closest to Earth on its elliptical orbit, and appears as its largest.

The next total lunar eclipse will not be until 2018. The next supermoon-lunar eclipse combination will not happen until 2033.

Sunday night’s eclipse was the second total lunar eclipse of the year and the fourth and final eclipse in a series of four total eclipses of the Moon in the 2014-2015 lunar tetrad.

Christian ministers John Hagee and Mark Biltz had claim the consecutive lunar eclipses indicate the end of earth as described in the Bible in Acts 2:20 and Revelation 6:12. Luckily, the earth was still spinning Monday morning as usual.