Tag Archives: Eclipse

Supermoon delights world’s star gazers in full moon, eclipse combination

The rising supermoon is seen over the church of Saint-Hilaire in the village of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine near Nantes, western France November 14,

By Patrick Johnston

SYDNEY (Reuters) – From Beijing to Berlin, star gazers around the world admired the supermoon – the largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades – as it made its way across the skies on Sunday and Monday.

In Australia, some sky-watchers climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to get a closer view of the moon as it ducked between the clouds over the city. Astronomers said it was closer to Earth than at any time since 1948.

The supermoon, also known as a blood moon, was produced when the shadow of Earth cast a reddish glow on the moon, the result of a rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the year.

For more than an hour on Sunday night and early on Monday morning, Earth’s shadow blanketed the full moon as the planet passed between the sun and the moon.

The brilliant white glow of the moon slowly transformed into a dim red, a coloring caused by Earth’s atmosphere scattering sunlight into the shadow.

“I think the last time I can remember this sort of (activity) is when I was very small, when Hale-Bopp came. Back then my parents took me (to watch),” said Hsieh Wei-Ting, 36, who lined up with scores of people in Taipei to look at the moon through telescopes in the Taiwanese capital. “It was like climbing a mountain to look at the stars.”

People set up their cameras as they wait for the supermoon in Madrid, Spain

People set up their cameras as they wait for the supermoon in Madrid, Spain November 14, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

In New York City, the Chrysler Building lit up when the supermoon set behind the Art Deco-style skyscraper, and photographers captured the moon rising over the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington D.C.

In Boston, real estate agent Jamie Iacoi filmed video from his roof deck on Sunday.

“At one point, the planes were flying right through the middle of the moon. It was so cool to see in person,” Iacoi said.

Spectators lined up in France, Israel and Germany to watch the moon rise behind famous monuments like the Eiffel Tower, Dormition Abbey, and the Brandenburg Gate.

The full moon also shone over Jakarta in Indonesia and Thailand’s Bangkok while in the Philippines, park-goers watched the spectacle in Manila.

The next supermoon-lunar eclipse combination will not happen until 2033.

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore and Melissa Fares in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Sunspot Cluster Launches Fresh Burst During Eclipse

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught a rare and fantastic sight last week:  an eruption of new m-class solar flares during a partial solar eclipse.

The moon made a 2 and a half hour voyage between the sun and the SDO, the longest eclipse or “solar transit” ever recorded by the SDO.

Sunspot 1967, an older spot renamed from Sunspot 1944, began to erupt on January 30th with m-class flares.  NASA officials said the sunspot is one of the biggest in the last 10 years.  The spot is wider than seven Earths placed together.

The radiation from the flares is not pointed near the Earth so it will have no impact at all on communications and will not be a threat to astronauts in the International Space Station.

The medium level bursts are coming from the same area where a larger, much more dangerous X-class flare launched in January.  That flare threatened the International Space Station astronauts with radiation to the point that a rocket delivery mission to the station had to be delayed for one day.

At least seven fireballs were captured by NASA cameras during the eruption.