In case you missed it, the sun, earth and moon lined up last night to put on a show, sometimes referred to as the “blood moon.” A rare event, the last time it happened was 33 years ago. Rare because two things must occur at the same time: the moon has to be at its perigee — closest to the earth in its orbit, called a "super moon"; and the moon has to be totally eclipsed by the earth. The red coloring occurs when some of the sun’s rays get refracted through the earth’s atmosphere, landing on the shadowed moon. Something about how different colored light has different wave lengths that get scattered less and more. Similar to what happens during beautiful sunsets.
Don’t worry if you did miss the show in person — put the next one on your calendar: October 8, 2033. Don’t you love it that our part of the universe is so predictable, ordered and precise? And that someone knows how to calculate these celestial movements?