The weekend’s winter storm threatened to obscure Sunday night’s lunar eclipse, but the clouds parted just long enough for Mainers still up in the wee hours to catch a glimpse of the super blood wolf moon.
The eclipse, where the moon, Earth and sun are in alignment, lasted for more than three hours, with the moon completely bathed in the Earth’s shadow — known as totality — for about an hour, according to the Associated Press.
What makes it a super blood wolf moon?
Tim Brothers, manager of MIT’s Wallace Astrophysical Observatory, told Boston.com that the “super” refers to how close the moon is to the earth, giving it a larger appearance in the sky. The “blood” refers to the moon’s red glow as its bathed in the sun’s light refracted off the Earth’s atmosphere. And the “wolf” refers to the time of year; a wolf moon is the traditional name for January’s full moon.
This is the first of three super moons to come, with another in the queue for February and another in March, according to Boston.com.
The next total lunar eclipse won’t come around until 2021, according to the Associated Press.
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