Yesterday, Jan. 30, 2018, the moon was as close to the earth as it would get until next month, on Feb. 27, 2018. Because it is about 26,000 miles closer to the earth on these days, the moon looks a bit bigger to us. The time when the moon is closest to the earth is called perigee.

This super moon we had yesterday, also happened to pass behind the shadow of the earth. Basically, the moon was hiding from the sun behind the earth. When it was eclipsed by the earth, the moon was only visible as a dark shadow. As  it disappeared and when it appeared again, we could see slivers of the edge of the moon.

The slight reddish tinge of the moon was made by the scattering of light by tiny particles in the earth’s atmosphere, so they also called this special super moon  a blood moon. As if that weren’t enough, when this lunar eclipse happened, it was also the second time we had a full moon in one month (the moon was full on January 1 and again on January 31),  making it a blue moon. So this moon event has more titles than a royal muckety-muck. It was a “super blue blood moon.”

I took this picture this morning about 5:45. No tripod, as I hadn’t planned ahead to take the photo. Maybe next time … but I understand it will be a very long time before all these events coincide again. Not sure where I’ll be in 2037.