There’s something mythical about the Moon — that little spherical ball roughly the size of Australia revolving around the Earth more or less once a month.
Tonight, it’s the centerpiece of a particularly storied event.
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31 January 2018 sees the month’s second full moon, commonly known as the “blue” moon.
It coincides with the perigee of the Moon — its closest point to Earth — which is also known as the “supermoon”.
And finally, because of its positioning in relation to the Earth and the Sun, some will see a total lunar eclipse, and a reddish-tinted Moon as it passes through the Earth’s shadow, known as the “blood” moon.
And yes, all this on one night in January.
This trifecta rarely arrives as a bundle package, but it’s the work of some ridiculously cool mathematics that govern the relationship of the Sun, Moon and Earth as the latter two buzz around the former.
And as predicted, social media users were once again gazing into the sky in search of the Moon. Many weren’t left disappointed.
Some Capetonians hiked up Lion’s Head to seek the bright ball in the sky.
While others, in countries that fell within the eclipse’s path, also captured detailed memories of the night.
From Melbourne, Australia, it looked quite incredible as snapped by @snapquackphotography.
This series is from @vbsuresh, a photographer from Bengaluru, India.
While this roll is from @wataru6113 — a snapper from Saitara Prefecture, Japan.
“The aspect that the moon gradually shifted from white to red turned out to be mysterious,” he writes in the description.
On Twitter, #SuperBlueBloodMoon trended across the world for much of Wednesday as users shared their snaps, and snarky hot takes.
Actually, there were mostly just hot takes.
Picture of the Day
#SuperBlueBloodMoon #Supermoon2018 pic.twitter.com/319MdjLN8y — ℳᴀᴀʟɪᴋ ツ (@almaalik_) January 31, 2018
The #SuperBlueBloodMoon was freaking crazy. Never seen anything like it. pic.twitter.com/vuMBX77B3D
— Slychotic (@slychotic) January 31, 2018
But arguably NASA won the night with this four-and-a-half-hour moon-gaze, retweeted over 89 000 times, liked more than 70 000 and viewed over three-million times.
You can also relive the Super Blue Blood Moon in all of its glory in the clip below.
LIVE NOW: Watch views of the #SuperBlueBloodMoon from multiple telescopes. Take a look: https://t.co/a5ScGDXhQu
— NASA (@NASA) January 31, 2018
Feature image: Memeburn
