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Rare Super Blue Moon Total Eclipse

For the first time since 1866 it’s a blue supermoon lunar eclipse over SF
By - posted 1/28/2018 No Comment

This January 31st, something quite rare and special will happen. Be sure to look up in the sky to spot the supermoon, blue moon, and total lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon, over San Francisco.

For observers in North America, it’s the first time all three of these phenomena will line up since 1866.

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.

When’s the best time to view the Supermoon & Eclipse in SF?
The best time to see the biggest effect of the supermoon is right at moonrise and at moonset so you can see the moon against hills, buildings and the horizon – that’s when it “appears” to be at its biggest since you have something in your field of view to compare it to.

  • Total Lunar Eclipse is 4:51am to 6:07am on Wednesday morning, January 31st – Moon should be completely red during the total eclipse
  • Moonset on Wednesday monring (January 31st) is 7:18am
  • Moonrise on January 31, 2018 is 6:04 pm.
  • Moonset the next morning (Thursday, Feb. 1) is 8:06 am.

This is also the last supermoon for 2018. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual.