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In a lunar eclipse, what is the term for the dark shadow the Earth throws over the moon? Umbra, tetrad, node or ombre. The umbra is the dark part of Earth's shadow in a lunar eclipse and the moon shadow in a solar eclipse. In yesterday's total lunar eclipse, reportedly the first one of those since 2019, the Earth's shadow completely covered the moon for 15 minutes. But this wasn't just any old lunar eclipse, it coincided with what's called a blood moon.
INDRA PETERSONS: What it was a total lunar eclipse, what does that mean? That means the moon was completely in the shadow of the Earth. So why red, right? Let's look at it another way. Let's pretend we spin you around and pretend you're on the moon looking back at the Earth.
So what do you see? You're seeing all of the Earth's sunsets and sunrises at the exact same time being projected right back at the moon and then the moon just reflects that red color back to you to Earth. That's why it looks red.
AZUZ: And that wasn't just any old blood moon. Because it was close to Earth in its elliptical orbit, that made it appear bigger earning the name super moon. And because this is the month of May when flowers bloom, the full moon is known by the name flower.
So what happened yesterday was titled the Super Flower Blood Moon, which sounds like a power up in Mario Kart and it was at least partially visible in North and South America on Wednesday morning and east Asia and Australia in the evening. How common are Super Flower Blood Moons?
They're not. For one thing, there are only two to four super moons we can see every year. Most of them do not coincide with eclipses. There's only one total lunar eclipse on the calendar in 2021 and it just happened to be in the month of May. So, rare. But if you missed it, don't fret. There's an angular solar eclipse set for June 10th.
