Lunar trifecta: Rare 'super blue blood moon' will light the sky next week

Source: CNN | January 26, 2018 | Zahid Mahmood

(CNN) – Set your alarms, space fans — if you can drag yourself out of bed next Wednesday, you’re in for a treat.

The pre-dawn hours of January 31 will play host to an incredibly rare celestial convergence — a “super blue blood moon.”

To prepare you for the lunar triple whammy, here’s your all-you-need-to-know guide.

What is a ‘super blue blood moon’?

It may sound like the apocalypse is nigh, so let’s break it down by its three parts: “super,” “blue” and “blood.”

So, a “supermoon” is when a full moon occurs at the same time as its perigee, the closest point of the moon’s orbit with Earth. The result: the moon appears larger than normal and NASA is predicting this one will be 14% brighter than usual.

Chances are you have used the phrase “once in a blue moon” — but have you ever wondered where it came from? The well-known idiom actually refers to the rare instance when there is a second full moon in a calendar month. The first supermoon of 2018 — which took place on New Year’s Day — was previously described by NASA as the “biggest and brightest” one expected for the entire year.

Then completing this “lunar trifecta” is the “blood” element. Although it does not have a scientific definition, a “blood moon” occurs during a lunar eclipse when faint red sunbeams peek out around the edges of the moon, giving it a reddish, copper color.

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