2019's super wolf blood moon

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January 20, 2019 is marked on my calendar as a big night sky event: I was in the right place at the right time to witness the year's first lunar eclipses. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy and it was rainy that night so I had to take photos as much as I could until the cloud cover (and the low temperature) made it impossible for me to take photos. Note that I was using my trusty Canon Powershot SX720 HS, handheld (no tripod)... a challenging idea because I really wanted to capture a clear shot of the blood red moon... but this photo is the clearest I got. Once the moon became red, I couldn't take a good photo anymore.

And yeah, I bothered Val, Biboy, Man, Ate Maddie, Joycelyn, and Kuya Allan to check out the sky where they were located. And I kept bugging Daddy to join me outside to watch the eclipse.


But what made this lunar eclipse special? And what's with the media calling it a "super wolf blood moon"?

It's a super moon because the Moon appears larger than normal. This is because the full moon coincides when the Moon is at its closest position to Earth. This astrological term is much catchier than the scientific term though: perigee (closest position to Earth) syzygy (Earth, Moon, and Sun are aligned).

It's a wolf moon because it is the full moon in January. Wolves howling during winter nights has long been associated with the full moon, hence the name.

It's a blood moon because the phenomenon made the moon turn red... a total lunar eclipse.

The super wolf blood moon is a rare event. In a year, there are around 12 full moons. According to Wikipedia, out of these full moons, only three or four are classified as super moons. And for a super moon to coincide with a lunar eclipse (a super blood moon)... let's just say that after this one, we'll watch another one in May 2021. 

It's that rare.  

And that's why I excited to watch the January 2019 eclipse.

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