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A Rare Super Blood Moon Eclipse over SF

A rare celestial combo we won’t see again until 2033.
By - posted 9/26/2015 No Comment

Thanks to an optical illusion in the sky, the moon will appear bigger and brighter than normal in the San Francisco Bay Area in the night, during what astronomers call a “supermoon.” Photo credit. David Yu.

There’s also a total eclipse of the moon on the night of September 27-28, 2015. It happens to be the closest supermoon of 2015. It’s the Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon, or full moon nearest the September equinox.

The best time to view and photograph the moon will just after moonrise on Sunday night between 6:56pm and 7:47pm

This September’s full moon is also called a Blood Moon, because it presents the fourth and final eclipse of a lunar tetrad: four straight total eclipses of the moon, spaced at six lunar months (full moons) apart.

So add it all up and you’ve got a rare Super Blood Harvest Moon eclipse and we won’t see another like this until 2033.

The best time to observe the supermoon is when the moon is near the horizon during either moonrise or moonset, thanks to having objects in the foreground (like buildings or trees) to provide reference points for estimating the moon’s size.

Total Lunar Eclipse | September 27, 2015
All times in Pacific Standard Time

  • Partial umbral eclipse begins: 6:07 pm
  • Total eclipse begins: 7:11 pm
  • Greatest eclipse: 7:47 pm
  • Total eclipse ends: 8:23 pm
  • Partial eclipse ends: 9:27 pm

Super Blood Moon | September 2015
Moonrise/Moonset times
This is when the “Supermoon” effect is most pronounced

  • Sunday Morning (9/27) – Moonset – 6:26 am
  • Sunday Night (9/27) – Moonrise – 6:56 pm
  • Monday Morning (9/28) – Moonset  – 7:39 am

Source: EarthSky