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The incredible partial lunar eclipse of JULY, also known as the “Blood Moon”, has attracted the attention of star watchers around the world … unless you missed the action.
The good news is that lunar eclipses are quite common, so you won’t have to wait too long to spy on a red moon again.
What is a Blood Moon? Explanation of lunar eclipses
The Earth is constantly rotating around the Sun and the Moon is constantly rotating around the Earth.
Sometimes all three can line up, placing the Earth directly between the Sun and the Moon in a straight line.
It means that the Moon is in the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow – the “shadow”.
And thanks to the convenient sizing and distance of all three objects, no sunlight can reach the Moon directly.
However, some of the sunlight is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the Moon to appear reddish – hence the name “Blood Moon”.
Lunar eclipses typically only last a few hours and can be viewed from anywhere on the night side of the Earth.
Since they are generally quite faint, it is also possible to view lunar eclipses without eye protection, which is not the case with a solar eclipse.
There are three different types of lunar eclipse:
- Total lunar eclipse – This is where the Moon turns deep red, receiving only the light that passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – This is when the Sun, Moon and Earth fail to form a perfect straight line, so the Moon only travels through the outer part of the Earth’s shadow. This means that the surface of the Moon is partially obscured.
- Partial lunar eclipse – This is when a part of the Moon travels through the full shadow of the Earth, which results in a part of the Moon being obscured.
Blood moon dates: when is the next lunar eclipse?
Don’t panic if you missed the January 2019 lunar eclipse – there are still plenty of blood moons to come.
Here are the best blood moons to look out for in the next 10 years, according to NASA:
- Total lunar eclipse – January 21, 2019
- Partial Lunar Eclipse – July 16, 2019
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – January 10, 2020
- Penumbral Lunar Eclipse – June 5, 2020
- Penumbral Lunar Eclipse – July 5, 2020
- Penumbral Lunar Eclipse – November 30, 2020
- Total lunar eclipse – May 26, 2021
- Partial lunar eclipse – November 19, 2021
- Total lunar eclipse – May 16, 2022
- Total lunar eclipse – November 8, 2022
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – May 5, 2023
- Partial Lunar Eclipse – October 28, 2023
- Penumbral Lunar Eclipse – March 25, 2024
- Partial Lunar Eclipse – September 18, 2024
- Total lunar eclipse – March 14, 2025
- Total lunar eclipse – September 7, 2025
- Total lunar eclipse – March 3, 2026
- Partial Lunar Eclipse – August 28, 2026
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – February 20, 2027
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – July 18, 2027
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – August 17, 2027
- Partial lunar eclipse – January 12, 2028
- Partial Lunar Eclipse – July 6, 2028
- Total lunar eclipse – December 31, 2028
- Total Lunar Eclipse – June 26, 2029
- Total lunar eclipse – December 20, 2029
- Partial Lunar Eclipse – June 15, 2030
- Penumbral lunar eclipse – December 9, 2030
Check out these amazing photos of the July 16th lunar eclipse.
Read Blood Moon’s wacky conspiracy theories here.
And he read about space mysteries that NASA still can’t explain.
Were you able to capture this week’s lunar eclipse? Let us know in the comments!
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