Silver Arrow - Creativity - Reporter

Task: Write a report with a photograph in your logbook.

On the night of 28th and 29th of May, 2021 I witness the blood moon together with my family. The blood moon was found like this, looking red and round which is very different from the way we normally see the moon. Many onlookers went out to look at the blood moon.

The blood moon, also known as a total lunar eclipse is a rare natural phenomenon. This phenomenon happens because the longer red wavelengths of light are refracted or bent towards the Moon, according to National Geographic. The moon turns red as, the moon orbits around Earth, while Earth orbits around the sun. The moon takes about 27 days to orbit Earth and goes through regular phases in a 29.5-day cycle. The difference in these two cycles has to do with the relative positions of the sun, Earth and moon, which change during the moon's orbit.

Lunar eclipses can only happen during a full moon, when the sun fully illuminates the surface. Usually a full moon has no eclipse because the moon orbits in a slightly different plane than the Earth and the sun do. However, at times the planes coincide. Earth passes in between the moon and the sun and cuts off the sunlight, causing an eclipse.

If Earth partially blocks the sun, and the darkest part of its shadow falls across the moon's surface, it is called a partial eclipse. You will see a black shadow taking a bite out of the moon. Sometimes, the moon passes through the lighter part of Earth's shadow, causing a penumbral eclipse. Only seasoned skywatchers will be able to tell the difference, because the moon only darkens very slightly.

During a full eclipse, however, something spectacular happens. The moon is fully in Earth's shadow. At the same time, a little bit of light from Earth's sunrises and sunsets (on the disk of the planet) falls on the surface of the moon. Because the light waves are stretched out, they look red. When this red light strikes the moon's surface, it also appears red.

How red the moon appears can depend on how much pollution, cloud cover or debris there is in the atmosphere. For example, if an eclipse takes place shortly after a volcanic eruption, the particles in the atmosphere will make the moon look darker than usual.

While there are planets and moons all over the solar system, only Earth is lucky enough to experience lunar eclipses because its shadow is just large enough to cover the moon completely. The moon is slowly drifting away from our planet (at roughly 1.6 inches or 4 centimeters a year) and this situation won't persist forever. There are roughly two to four lunar eclipses every year, according to NASA, and each one is visible over about half the Earth.

Past sightings of a total lunar eclipse was seen near Sri Mariamman Temple in South Bridge Road minutes before a total lunar eclipse on July 28, 2018 and in 2019 a blood moon was seen from the temple again at 7.04pm, when the moon rises above the horizon, making its appearance with a reddish hue.

When the blood moons can be seen? (Until 2030)

-November 8th(2022)

-September 7th (2025)

-March 3rd (2026)

-December 31st (2028)

-June 26th (2029)

-December 20th (2030)

Information is found at these websites:

- Straits Times Article (Here)

-Space.com Article (Here)