Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures,
now, as they fly through the air. *
It was a combination of full 'Flower' Moon, supermoon, 'Blood' Moon, and total lunar eclipse, all wrapped into one astronomical wow, as seen over Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 16 May 2022, at 12:43 am EDT.
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Blood Moon (aka total lunar eclipse)
A total lunar eclipse happens when the Moon travels through the Earth's umbra and blocks all direct sunlight from illuminating the Moon's surface. However, some sunlight still reaches the lunar surface indirectly, via the Earth's atmosphere, bathing the Moon in a reddish, yellow, or orange glow [thus colloquially called a 'Blood Moon'].— Time and Date.
As the Sun's rays pass through the atmosphere, some colors in the light spectrum—those towards the violet spectrum—are filtered out by a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. This is the same mechanism that causes colorful sunrises and sunsets. Red wavelengths are least affected by this effect, so the light reaching the Moon's surface has a reddish hue, causing the fully eclipsed Moon to take on a red color.
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Full Flower (Super) Moon
"May’s full Flower Moon name should be no surprise; flowers spring forth across North America in abundance this month. The full Moon names used by The Old Farmer’s Almanac come from a number of places, including Native American, Colonial American, and European sources. 'Flower Moon' has been attributed to Algonquin peoples.— Old Farmer's Almanac.
May’s full Moon is the first supermoon of the year. A supermoon is most commonly defined as any full Moon that occurs when the Moon is at at least 90% of perigee (the point in the Moon’s orbit where it is closest to Earth). In 2022, there will be four supermoons.
Here was the moon, two hours earlier (at 10:32 pm EDT, on 15 May), only partially eclipsed and yet un-'bloodied.'
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