BELLVILLE, Ohio –Let’s see how many names we can give the lunar eclipse; and by the way, it was a full lunar eclipse. Well, lunar eclipse is one name. It also coincided with a supermoon. It’s also called a Harvest “Blood Moon,” the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Did you see it Sunday night?
According to the National Weather Service, it was a “rare celestial event” during which a total lunar eclipse coincided with a supermoon. A supermoon is when a full or new moon happens at the same time as the the new moon, when it is closest to Earth.
The result is a full moon that’s bigger and brighter than average. A supermoon occurs about four to six times a year.
But according to Space.com, we wouldn’t have been able to tell that it appeared larger because it was only about seven percent larger.
The lunar eclipse started at approximately 9:07 p.m. eastern daylight time (EDT) and lasted a little over an hour, with a full eclipse at 10:11 p.m. EDT. And for sure, you couldn’t see anything then, at least not near Mansfield.
The total lunar eclipse is often referred to as a Blood Moon, due to the reddish appearance of the moon in the earth’s shadow. The Blood Moon is the fourth and final lunar eclipse in an ongoing tetrad–four lunar eclipses in a row. The first of the four eclipses took place in April 2014.
The eclipse was expected to end about 11:23 p.m. And don’t expect to see the sight again soon: There won’t be another total lunar eclipse until 2018.
