The Netherlands sees the "moon of blood" at the longest lunar eclipse of this century NOW



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The moon rises at 9:30 pm and the complete lunar eclipse peaks at 22,22. At 14:14, the lunar eclipse was over. With an hour and three quarters of an hour, it was the longest lunar eclipse of this century.

Lunar eclipses occur as often as solar eclipses, with a maximum of three per year. The previous lunar eclipse was in 2015. The next is scheduled for January 2019.

Lunar Eclipse

"The lunar eclipse takes place because the sun, the earth and the moon – in that order – are at the same time at this point, "says Esther Hanko, astronomer at the University of Amsterdam, against NU.nl. At the eclipse, the moon is thus completely in the shadow of the earth

With a regular full moon, the three are almost in line, but because they are not fully synchronized the One with the other, this does not lead to a complete eclipse. Van der Tak says.

Moon of Blood

In a solar eclipse the sun is not visible, in a lunar eclipse the moon is, despite the fact that the moon is protected by the earth. "He colors in red," says Van der Tak, "because the sunlight is diverted into our atmosphere, in the direction of the moon." Because the moon turns red, the phenomenon is also called "blood moon".

The deviation of sunlight is also called rayleigh scattering. Because the red color has a longer wavelength, it is not easily affected by our atmosphere. This makes him reach the moon and colors it red. "We see the same effect in our air," says Hanko, "our atmosphere allows the blue color to pass through, which gives the air that color."

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