Worm moon meets the edge of Earth’s shadow
This year’s only chance for Aotearoa to see a lunar eclipse set Ōtautahi Christchurch skies aglow on Monday.
The so-called worm moon rose about 7.20pm, and was combined with a penumbral lunar eclipse, or partial lunar eclipse.
The worm moon is said to get its name from Native American tribes, who named it after a type of beetle larvae that emerges as the seasons change. According to Nasa, the name came into common usage after the Farmers Almanac in the United States began publishing Native American terms for different moons in the 1930s.
A lunar eclipse is when Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, in contrast to a solar eclipse, when it’s the Moon that intercedes between the Sun and Earth.
There are three types of lunar eclipse – a total eclipse, also called a blood moon, when the Moon is basked in a red hue; a partial eclipse, when only a part of the Moon is shaded and turns red; and a penumbral eclipse, when the Moon travels through Earth’s penumbra, or the faint outer part of its shadow.
Alan Gilmore, the former superintendent of Mt John Observatory in Tākapo/Tekapo, said cloud obscured the view from his vantage point on Monday, but it would not have been an obvious eclipse. He said the Moon would have looked a little “odd” as it grazed Earth’s penumbra, with the top edge of the Moon turning the darkest.
The first full solar eclipse of 2024, in the first week of April, will be visible only from North and Central America.
The next chance New Zealanders will get to see a lunar eclipse will be in March 2025.