Super Blue Moon eclipse On January 31

20 January 2018

 - The Blue Moon – second of two full moons in one calendar month – will pass through the Earth’s shadow on January 31, 2018, to give us a total lunar eclipse. Totality, when the moon will be entirely inside the Earth’s dark umbral shadow, will last a bit more than one-and-a-quarter hours. The January 31 full moon is also the third in a series of three straight full moon supermoons – that is, super-close full moons. It’s the first of two Blue Moons in 2018. So it’s not just a lunar eclipse, or a Blue Moon, or a supermoon. It’s all three … a super Blue Moon eclipse!

Is it the first Blue Moon total eclipse in 150 years, as some social media memes are now claiming? It is … if you’re not considering the whole world, but only the Americas. More about that below.

IMPORTANT. If you live in North America or the Hawaiian Islands, this lunar eclipse will be visible in your sky before sunrise on January 31.

On the other hand, if you live in the Middle East, Asia, Indonesia, Australia or New Zealand, this lunar eclipse will happen in the evening hours after sunset on January 31.