ON THE NIGHT of Sunday, January 20, sky-watchers across the Americas had a front-row seat to a rare cosmic event, as three lunar phenomena converge to give rise to what some people are calling a super blood wolf moon.
While that may sound like a song straight out of a 1970s rock opera, it’s actually a term for a type of total lunar eclipse.
During totality, the full moon does not disappear entirely and instead turns a rusty shade of red, earning it the moniker “blood moon.” This lunar eclipse happens to coincide with the wolf moon, the traditional name for the January full moon. What’s more, the moon will be unusually close to Earth and so will be slightly bigger and brighter, making it a so-called supermoon.
