If you’ve been on the internet, you’ve absolutely come across the term ‘super blue blood moon’ this month. It’s another one of those zesty little space phenomenons that gets everyone all whipped up into a tizz because they’re convinced they’ll manage to take an amazing giant-moon photo, only to realise they’re shit with cameras and/or are trying to do it with a cracked iPhone 5.
Razzing aside (you know I love to razz) space shit is fun, and we’re all a little bit excited at the thought of a weird moon. And – while your mental image of what a ‘super blue blood moon’ looks like is probably way off (I thought sky-sized red monster that then collided with Earth, but I have been told my imagination is not normal) the moon will look cool, and in the best news ever, Australia is one of the best countries to spot this baby from.
Here’s what you need to know. I’ve dumbed it down because, well, I know shit-all about space things so frankly I needed it to make sense to me in the first place. I don’t even know if this is a space thing or a meteorological thing. I want to say space thing. ANYWAY.
IT’S THREE LUNAR EVENTS IN ONE
So, you probably know about super moons – we had one relatively recently on Jan 2, after all. A super moon is a full moon at it’s closest point in orbit to Earth. It makes the moon look extra bright (up to 30% more, to be specific) and up to 14% larger. Which is cool.
This event is a super moon – but it’s also a blue moon and a blood moon.
A blue moon is the second full moon in one calendar month. These are rare, but not super rare – Australia’s last one was in 2015.
A blood moon is basically a term for a total lunar eclipse, when the Earth, moon and sun completely align, making the moon look red (like blood! Scary blood-looking moon! Get it?).
So the extra rare thing is not these events separately, but the fact they’re all happening at once. This is cool to space-enjoying folk, but for us plebs it’ll just be fun to see a bright red moon that looks a bit bigger than normal.
To give you an idea of how rare this is, just a combo of a blue and blood moon hasn’t happened for yonks.
“Those two things have not happened together for 152 years,” astronomer Professor Fred Watson told 9Honey Travel this week.
The next blue moon eclipse? December 2028. So in forever, then. And that one won’t be a super moon, so. Basically don’t miss this.
“This is an extremely unusual occurrence. It will be unlikely for all three celestial events to converge again within the next century,” Professor Boyd said.
THE EAST COAST WINS, SUCKED IN
Soz, WA – the east coast of Australia has this one in the bag. According to 9Honey Travel, Victoria and NSW will get to see the phenomenon from around 11.50pm on January 31st, until around 12.30am on February 1. For QLD, obviously shave an hour off that (bloody daylight savings REFUSERS).
If you’re living along the west coast, you won’t completely miss out – get those cameras out from 7.30pm – 11pm.
“There are bits of it that they’ll miss,” says Professor Boyd, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a squiz, right? Sorry for saying sucked in. I love you all, really.
IT’S VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE
Sometimes this sky shit happens and experts are all “ooooh, exciting space things, wheeee” but then it’s like PSYCH you can’t actually see shit unless you have a professional telescope or some nifty binoculars. Boring.
The good news is, this super blue blood moon is completely visible to the naked eye, and unlike solar eclipses, you don’t have to use special protection to stare directly at it.
“You don’t need to go into the outback or anything – although the further away you are the better the view,” explains Professor Boyd.
That leads us to the most pressing question – now that you know what time to get prepped, where’s the best spot to be?
“Find somewhere that’s relatively dark, and the best way to view is with binoculars, because you get a lovely view of the eclipsed moon,” said Professor Boyd.
Goddammit with the binoculars. Sorry I lied – well, it’s not really a lie. Basically, you’ll get a lot more detail with binoculars, but you won’t miss it all without ’em.
FYI, when he says dark he means as little city lights as poss, so it could be worth road tripping slightly out of town, or at least heading to a local park to get the most out of it.
So there you go. Extremely kindergarten level explanation and tips.
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