No super moon eclipse here
There will be no genealogy in The Legal Genealogist today.
Nope.
I’m pouting.
Because my personal family history pages came up blank last night.
You see, in case you didn’t notice, Mother Nature did something spectacular last night.
It was a total eclipse of a super moon.
A super moon occurs when the moon is at perigee — closest to the earth — when it is full. When that happens, the moon appears biggest and brightest to those of us stuck here on the ground.1
And a total eclipse? That’s when the earth is between the sun and the moon and casts its shadow on the moon, completely covering the moon.2
Now a super moon by definition isn’t all that rare: they recur in cycles of 14 lunar months, so we’ll get another one on the 14th of November 2016.3
And a total eclipse isn’t all that rare, either: on average, every geographical location on the planet will have the pleasure of a total lunar eclipse about once every 2.3 years.4
But a total eclipse of a super moon? That is rare. We won’t see the next one of those until 2033.5
I couldn’t find a ready reference to see whether that one, in 2033, will be visible here where I live in Central New Jersey.
And … sigh … we here in Central New Jersey didn’t see the one last night either.
Mother Nature did her “nyah nyah” thing and socked us in with a cloud cover. Some parts of the area did get at least partial visibility — but not here.
Sigh.
So today’s blog is brought to you courtesy of 17 U.S.C. §105, the section of the U.S. Copyright Act that provides that “Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government.” Because Bill Ingalls, the photographer who took the image featured in today’s blog, is the chief photographer of NASA, the images he takes as a U.S. government employee on behalf of the U.S. government are in the public domain. (His personal images, of course, are his property and he does have a copyright on those.)
Sigh… this part of my personal family history is downright disappointing.
SOURCES
Image: Bill Ingalls, NASA, “Supermoon Eclipse in Denver, Colorado.”
- See “Sunday’s supermoon is closest of 2015,” EarthSky (http://earthsky.org/ : accessed 28 Sep 2015). ↩
- Robert Roy Britt, “Lunar Eclipses: What Are They & When Is the Next One?,” Space.com, posted 18 Sep 2015 (http://www.space.com/ : accessed 28 Sep 2015). ↩
- “Sunday’s supermoon is closest of 2015,” EarthSky ↩
- Joe Rao, “10 Surprising Facts About Lunar Eclipses,” Space.com, posted 27 Sep 2015 (http://www.space.com/ : accessed 28 Sep 2015). ↩
- Andrew Fazekas, “Rare Super Blood Moon Total Eclipse: How to See It,” National Geographic: Starstruck, posted 25 Sep 2015 (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ : accessed 28 Sep 2015). ↩
Same here Judy. I didn’t stay up too late, but when I went out to see it, nothing but clouds! Double Sigh!
Jane
I probably went out every 10 minutes from 8 p.m. to midnight. Nothing. Not even a peep through the clouds. Bleah! Mother Nature, I’m just sayin’, I’d sure better still be alive in 2033…
We did miss the moon rise due to overcast skies, but by 10pm we just had scattered clouds. So my son and I were able to enjoy watching that last little crescent go into darkness.
At least you saw some of it!
We had a great view of the blood moon as a region, but wonderful, tall, evergreen trees make it hard to find a spot that is good for finding a clear view of the moon. We missed it!
Sigh… I’d have driven a ways to be able to see it… if there’d been any good direction to go!
I feel your pain, Judy… My wife and I were all set to go out for a long walk on Folly Beach, SC, to watch the moon rise and to view the eclipse. Same thing as you… clouds from about 4pm on. My wife was especially disappointed and was a tad sullen all night 🙁 Ah well… another 18 years or so isn’t really all that long in the cosmic scheme of things… I just hope we’re all still alive then!
Tucson’s weather was perfect! And the sun had not quite set at full eclipse (7:15 p.m. MST). Too bad you weren’t in our neck of the woods!
I hope all my Arizona kin got to see it too, then!
No go here in the “Rocket City” either. It was clear and sunshine all last week until Friday when the clouds came in and the rain started. I hope the weather cooperates in 2033!
Sigh… 2033… sigh…
Sorry you didn’t get to see it. Here in the Pacific Northwest we were actually free of clouds (!), but the eclipse was already under way by the time the moon rose. Then the topography around my house meant that by the time it cleared the hills and the trees the eclipse was already total, making it that much more difficult to find the moon in the first place!
Quite honestly, I didn’t think it was all that impressive as lunar eclipses go, but any that is actually visible here is a treat!
I’ve seen some wonderful shots from the PNW!
I am sooo sorry you guys didn’t get to see the eclipse! That is what happens here in west central Vermont but for a change DIDN’T! And there I was online with a friend in England who was running out every 10 minutes to take another photo, and I was running out into the street (where the best view was for the early part) in my robe and slippers, taking photos and then uploading them to some folks at an observatory in Ohio that was going to livestream the eclipse, but couldn’t… because they were clouded in. Me, I’m doing the happy dance, because this was the best lunar eclipse ever, and I got to see it! Here’s the place to go to see really spectacular eclipse photos: spaceweather.com
Spaceweather’s gallery is spectacular, but sure doesn’t take the place of getting to see it myself!
Judy, as I so well know! I hadn’t seen a live lunar eclipse for over 20 years. Same issue with auroras. Between the clouds and the street lighting, it’s a wash. My daughter lives in another village w/o street lighting, and on clear nights we would sit on a north facing incline back of her house and watch spectacular displays. I missed them all this year, which has been an amazing year for auroras. Or so I hear…
I saw the eclipse in 2008 (see http://www.pbase.com/jgr/image/23118128/original) but not this one… sigh…
I checked the Gateway to Oklahoma History to see if any of my Oklahoma ancestors might have seen a blood moon. I didn’t find that phrase. However, the week of May 20, 1910, a lunar eclipse improved the viewing of Halley’s Comet in several locations.
Booth, R. F., editor. Morning Examiner. (Bartlesville, Okla.), Vol. 15, No. 84, Ed. 1 Tuesday, May 24, 1910, Newspaper, May 24, 1910; (http://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc143388/ : accessed September 28, 2015), Oklahoma Historical Society, The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
Criminy, that’s a great thought, Kay — my Oklahoma ancestors should have seen the same thing!
It really was cool to watch. We had cloud cover, but it continued to move and we would get many great glimpses of the moon. Even better, my watching the supermoon eclipse took place with second cousins, and first cousins one removed in the yard of the home that my great grandmother once lived in.
Here’s hoping that you will be able to view the next one.
I hope I’ll be around for that one, Terri — but oh my… watching it at your own ancestral home? Too cool.
Judy & Friends,
You all would have been thrilled to see the view of the eclipse from the street in front of our home. Neighbors shared their large powerful binoculars, so when the clouds cleared, there appeared a huge under-lit ball hanging in the sky. The depth of it was emphasized by the silver light showing at the bottom. It truly glowed. The moon was no flat circle, it was a huge round globe hanging there. This was the scene in Los Altos, California. (Silicon Valley)