A Super Blue Blood Moon as seen from the Preserve’s Observation Tower. This rare astronomical event triplet happened in the early morning of January 31, 2018.

A blue moon is the second full moon of a calendar month. The moon rotates around the Earth in a 28-day cycle. So a blue moon happens occasionally. Hence the phrase, “once in a blue moon.”

A super moon happens when the moon is especially close to the Earth, making it appear larger (up to 17%) and brighter than usual. This occurs because the moon’s orbit around the Earth is an ellipse. Which at times brings the moon thousands of miles closer.

Coinciding with the above two events was a total lunar eclipse. As the moon entered Earth’s shadow the reflected light had a reddish tint… a blood moon.