The Full Moon of May, also called the Flower Moon is occur on 26th May 2021 : The Flower Moon this year will be a Supermoon and a Lunar Eclipse. This is also the closest Supermoon of the year and will appear Blood Red in some regions.
The Moon goes around the earth in an elliptical path. Imagine a circle but a little stretched. The Earth is located at a point near the center. This makes the Moon orbit the Earth in such a way that it comes close to the Earth and moves away from us in this orbit, as seen from Earth.
On an average the Moon is 384400kms away from us. When at Perigee (the closest point to earth), it will be around 356500km away from us. When the Moon is at this Perigee in its Full Moon phase, we call it a Supermoon. The converse is also applicable, that when the Full Moon is at Apogee (the farthest point from earth) we call it a Micro-moon.
Depending on its distance, a Supermoon is 7% bigger than an average full moon and 13% bigger than a Micro-moon. This year on May 26th the moon will come as close as 357313 km and will be 357393 km when it reaches Full Phase at 2:13pm and will remain in the full moon phase till 7:15pm.
This will be the closest Supermoon for the year 2021.
As the Moon passes behind the earth every month, it escapes the earth’s shadow because of the 5o tilt in Moon’s orbit. However, at certain points in a year, the Full Moon passes from the Earth’s shadow which causes the Lunar Eclipse.
The May Supermoon will pass through Earth’s proper shadow, the umbra, and will be devoid of the Sun’s light reflecting off of its surface for 11 Minutes. In this moment, the light from the sun, passing off the edge of the earth, falls on the moon. The sunlight passes through the parts of the earth that are in twilight. The orange-colored sunlight that illuminates the earth’s skies during these times, fall upon the moon giving it a red hue. This causes the moon to appear red.
The moon turns red every time it passes through the earth’s proper shadow (the Umbra) and we call it the red-blood moon.
Due to the angle and the timing, this Lunar eclipse will only be visible for the entire duration in the Oceania region of the globe and the parts of the eclipse will be visible in countries like Japan, Indonesia and China. In India the eclipse is said to appear penumbral from the North eastern states. However, the very faint penumbral shadow and the timings practically make it impossible to see the eclipse from our country.
Although we cannot see the Eclipse, we can however enjoy the Super-Flower Moon and see the Lunar Mares and craters facing us, on this full moon. PAAC wishes every one clear skies to enjoy the beauty of the closest full moon for the year 2021.
| Eclipse starts: | 2:17PM IST |
| Total Eclipse from : | 4:41PM IST |
| Maximum Eclipse : | 4:48PM IST |
| Total Eclipse ends : | 4:55PM IST |
| Eclipse Ends : | 7:19PM IST |
Here’s the PAAC infographic for this eclipse:
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Very well written in very simple science communication language, conveying all aspects of this very sepecial celestial event!