January 2018 lunar eclipse

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes within Earth's umbra (shadow). As the eclipse begins, Earth's shadow first darkens the Moon slightly. Then, the shadow begins to "cover" part of the Moon, turning it a dark red-brown color (typically – the color can vary based on atmospheric conditions). The Moon appears to be reddish because of Rayleigh scattering (the same effect that causes sunsets to appear reddish) and the refraction of that light by Earth's atmosphere into its umbra.^[6]

The following simulation shows the approximate appearance of the Moon passing through Earth's shadow. The northern portion of the Moon is closest to the center of the shadow, making it darkest and reddest in appearance.

This was a "supermoon", as the Moon was near to its closest distance to earth in its elliptical orbit, making it 7% larger in apparent diameter or 14% larger in area, than an average full moon. The previous supermoon lunar eclipse was the September 2015 lunar eclipse.^[1]

The full moon of 31 January 2018 was the second full moon that calendar month (in most time zones), making it, under one definition of the term, a "blue moon".

Additionally referencing the orange or red "blood" colors that occur during a lunar eclipse, media sources described the event as a "super blue blood Moon".^[7]

The Pacific Ocean was turned toward the Moon at the time of the eclipse. Central and eastern Asia (including most of Siberia), Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand and most of Australia got a good view of this moon show in the evening sky. For Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the eclipse was underway as the moon rose.^[8]

Along the U.S. West Coast, the total phase began at 4:51 a.m. PST. The further east, the closer the start of the partial phases coincided with moonset. Along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard, for instance, the Moon had only just begun to enter the darkest part of Earth's shadow, the umbra, at 6:48 a.m. EST when it disappeared from view below the west-northwest horizon. The duration of the total phase was 77 minutes, with the Moon tracking through the southern part of the Earth's shadow. During totality, the Moon's lower limb appeared brighter than the dark upper limb.^[8]

Visibility map

• 
  Example in Aichi Prefecture, Japan:

  1. Penumbral lunar eclipse 20:23 (JST)
  2. Partial lunar eclipse 21:13 (JST)
  3. Partial lunar eclipse 21:43 (JST)
  4. Total lunar eclipse (blood moon) 21:55 (JST)

• 
  Fayetteville, North Carolina, 11:36 UTC
• 
  Partial from Naval Base Point Loma, California
• 
  Melbourne, Florida, 12:00 UTC
• 
  Jacksonville, Florida, 12:10 UTC
• 
  Macon, Georgia, 12:11 UTC
• 
  Tula, Tamaulipas, 12:29 UTC
• 
  Houston, Texas, 12:41 UTC
• 
  Dallas, Texas, 12:51 UTC
• 
  Totality from Southern California, 12:58 UTC
• 
  Denver, Colorado, 12:59 UTC
• 
  Yellowstone National Park, 13:03 UTC
• 
  Placitas, New Mexico, 13:35 UTC
• 
  Redwood City, California, 13:43 UTC
• 
  Novato, California, 14:13 UTC
• 
  Landers, California at dawn
• 
  Joshua Tree, California

• 
  Partial from Ilagan, Isabela
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  Hiroshima, Japan, 11:43 UTC
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  Shinjyuku, Tokyo, 12:52 UTC
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  Chiang Mai, Thailand, 12:57 UTC
• 
  Chōfu, Tokyo, 13:22 UTC
• 
  Guangzhou, China, 13:50 UTC
• 
  Kerala, India, 14:03 UTC
• 
  Novosibirsk, Russia, 14:06 UTC
• 
  George Town, Malaysia, 14:16 UTC
• 
  Singapore, 14:32 UTC
• 
  From Kuwait at moonrise, 15:03 UTC
• 
  Nanjing, China, 15:10 UTC
• 
  From Russian Far East

• 
  Lake Wendouree, Victoria, 12:40 UTC
• 
  Sydney, Australia, 12:49 UTC
• 
  Chelsea, Victoria, 13:44 UTC

• A total lunar eclipse on 31 January.
• A partial solar eclipse on 15 February.
• A partial solar eclipse on 13 July.
• A total lunar eclipse on 27 July.
• A partial solar eclipse on 11 August.

The January 2018 lunar eclipse is the first ascending node eclipse of the lunar eclipse series sets from 2016 to 2020. It is also part of Saros cycle 124.

Lunar eclipse series sets from 2016–2020
Descending node					Ascending node
Saros	Date	Type Viewing	Gamma		Saros	Date Viewing	Type Chart	Gamma
109	2016 Aug 18	Penumbral	1.56406		114	2017 Feb 11	Penumbral	−1.02548
119	2017 Aug 07	Partial	0.86690		124	2018 Jan 31	Total	−0.30143
129	2018 Jul 27	Total	0.11681		134	2019 Jan 21	Total	0.36842
139	2019 Jul 16	Partial	−0.64300		144	2020 Jan 10	Penumbral	1.07270
149	2020 Jul 05	Penumbral	−1.36387
Last set	2016 Sep 16				Last set	2016 Mar 23
Next set	2020 Jun 05				Next set	2020 Nov 30

A similar eclipse occurs on 31 January 2037, one metonic cycle of 19 years in the future.

A lunar eclipse will be preceded and followed by solar eclipses by 9 years and 5.5 days (a half saros).^[9] This lunar eclipse is related to two annular solar eclipses of Solar Saros 131.

26 January 2009	6 February 2027

• List of lunar eclipses
• List of 21st-century lunar eclipses

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lunar eclipse of 2018 January 31.

• 2018 Jan 31 chart: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
• Hermit eclipse: 2018-01-31

• LunarEclipse2018.org