Moon to put on super blue show
A triple Moon event will happen next week, for the first time in more than 150 years.
On January 31, New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and most of Asia will be able to see a supermoon – a blue moon and a total lunar eclipse simultaneously for the first time since 1866.
The triple celestial event is being called a ‘‘super blue blood moon eclipse’’.
Ian Griffin, a British astronomer who now works as the director of Otago Museum in Dunedin, said he was excited about the lunar eclipse.
‘‘It’s the most amazing thing, it should be stunning,’’ Griffin said.
For stargazers, anywhere with a view of the Moon in the northern sky would be fine as long as it wasn’t in the middle of Auckland, he said.
‘‘All you need is a deck chair and some binoculars.’’
Griffin booked two days off work months ago to ‘‘chase clear sky’’, and if all went well he would view it from Aoraki Mt Cook.
In Auckland, the Stardome in One Tree Hill will host stargazers with an event running from 8pm on January 31 to 3am next day.
Auckland Stardome educator Josh Kirkley said the blood red moon would be about 30 per cent brighter and 14 per cent bigger than usual.
The eclipse would happen gradually beginning at midnight and reach its maximum about 2.30am, Kirkley said.
‘‘It’ll look larger than most moons,’’ Kirkley said.
Because of the brightness and scale of the eclipse, stargazers would be able to watch from One Tree Hill without needing a telescope but the telescope would be available for use as well, Kirkley said.
A Metservice spokesperson said settled weather was moving over the country this weekend, which was good news for stargazers, but there was still a chance that things could change.
Across the country, the highest possibility of cloud cover was for the very north and very south of New Zealand on January 31, the spokesperson said.
A supermoon is where a full moon coincides with the closest the Moon gets to Earth during its orbit, Kirkley said.
A blue moon is when two full moons occur in a calendar month, and occurs about every 21⁄2 years due to differences between calendar months and lunar phases, he said.
The total lunar eclipse, or blood moon, occurs when the moon passes directly behind the Earth, into its shadow.
The Sun, Earth and Moon need to be closely aligned for it to happen – with the Earth in the middle – and it has to be a full moon.
If there’s cloud or bad weather on the evening a live stream provided by Nasa (the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration) will be used at the Stardome.