Bleeding Moon
The moon looks like it is bleeding this evening. A full moon is not usually red! So I googled it, and guess what... it's a total eclipse, the first one since 2001. And it's a good one here, in the north of England - cloudless. If you read this in time, go and have a look - it's very strange! You can observe it safely too, because it isn't like a solar eclipse.
I'm sure lots of people will blog about this, but I just can't help myself! It started at 20.16 and mid eclipse will happen at 23.21 - that's 6 minutes away. It'll all be over by 02.25.
What's happening
The earth has moved in front of the sun and so what we are seeing is the earth's shadow being cast. You'd think that this would make the moon invisible, but because of light refraction, some light still bounces onto the moon. Furthermore, blue light is scattered through our atmosphere more than red light, so this is what remains, and we end up with a beautiful bleeding moon. The clever people at Jodrell Bank explain this in much more detail. Right - I'm off to watch the rest of it!
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