Last night’s Supermoon impresses
Chances are, if you looked out your window on the night of Sept. 27, you caught a glimpse of the Supermoon lunar eclipse, a phenomenon in which the moon is completely covered by the earth and takes on a red tint. The last time this rare event took place was almost 33 years ago, back in 1982.
A Supermoon lunar eclipse occurs when a full moon is in its closest rotation to the earth, making the moon appear 14 percent larger (the Supermoon half of the equation). At the same time,
it passes behind the earth’s shadow (hence the lunar eclipse). Although both events differ in their regularity (the next lunar ellipse will be in 2018, whereas a Supermoon will happen once a month), the true rarity is when they occur at the same time, causing the inflated red moon seen in the sky last night.
If you missed last night’s moon, don’t worry. The next one will occur sometime in 2033, so you have plenty of time to make your plans.
