Have your telescopes and cameras ready for May’s Super Flower Blood Moon tomorrow!
Stargazers in Orlando will be able to watch May’s major celestial event, starting with a super moon late Tuesday night and a lunar eclipse between 5:44 a.m and 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
The sky spectacle will be the most visible in the Pacific and western North America. But Floridians will still partially see the only super blood moon of the year. A lunar eclipse gives the moon a red tint, hence the name “blood moon”. This event also coincides with the moon’s perigee, when our night-time companion reaches its closest point to Earth, having a larger appearance to the naked eye.
Although super moons tend to happen more often as the moon completes its trajectory, there will be only two lunar eclipses or blood moons this year. The second one will happen in November.
“We haven’t had a total lunar eclipse occur with a supermoon in almost six years, and the next total lunar eclipse won’t happen over North America until May 2022,” said NASA.
Dr. Yan Fernandez, a professor with the Department of Physics at the University of Central Florida says even though Floridians will only partially see the celestial spectacle, it’s worth waking up right before dawn to enjoy it.
“We won’t see totality, but having the moon hanging above the Horizon with a bite taken out of it is pretty neat to see,” said Fernandez in an interview with WKMG.
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This article appears in May 19-25, 2021.