A blood moon occurred beginning in the evening of September 27, 2015 at 8:11pm and ended on September 28, 2015 at 1:22. The full eclipse took place at 10:47pm. It could be seen in western Africa, western Europe, and North and South America.
If you are not familiar with the term “blood moon”, it’s a rare event. The last one happened in 1982, and it won’t happen again until 2033. During a blood moon, instead of appearing its usual grey color, the moon appears a rusty red color instead.
A blood moon happens during a total lunar eclipse, which happens when the sun, Earth, and moon are aligned like the picture below shows.
Because there’s a tilt in the lunar orbit, it normally passes above or below Earth’s shadow. When it does pass through Earth’s shadow, the only light that gets to the moon is from the sun’s rays passing through Earth’s atmosphere.
The scattered blue light in Earth’s atmosphere leaves what little light that does hit the moon predominately red. The closer the the Umbra (refer to picture above) the moon gets, the more of a rusty red color it gets! Blood moons appear 14% larger and 33% brighter the other full moons.
Bibliography:
"Lunar Eclipses." September 27 / September 28, 2015 — Total Lunar Eclipse – Where and When to See. Timeanddate.com, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2015. <http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2015-september-28>.
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). "Total lunar eclipse will bring big red Moon to early morning sky." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 September 2015.
Shari Rudavsky, The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Ind. "What You Need to Know about the Supermoon Lunar Eclipse." USA Today. Gannett, 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 27 Sept. 2015. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/25/blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-super-moon-need-to-know/72790162/>.
