Super Flower Blood Moon 2021: Stunning 'Super Flower Blood Moon' rises with rare lunar eclipse

Super Flower Blood Moon

When a super flower blood moon takes to the skies the name itself captures a lot of attention. 

Eyes to the skies on Wednesday as a rare celestial event took shape.

First, a super moon which appears larger than a normal full moon that you can also see rising over ancient ruins in Greece. 

As for the blood part, well that's because in some parts of the world including the Western US it coincided with the first total lunar eclipse in two years, turning the moon a dusty red and giving it another name the "blood moon."

So not only do you have a super moon appearing about 7% bigger and up to 15% brighter than a typical full moon as the moon's orbit moves the closest to earth it will be this year at over 350,000 kilometers away.  

But also as the earth moves between the sun and the moon its shawdow begins falling across the surface of the moon.

The penumbra phase of the eclipse and the umbra is when the earth's entire shadow is cast.

But not all the sunlight is intercepted and that's what give the moon that reddish hue as earth's atmosphere scatters the blue light but allows red light to filter through much like during a sunset.

The impressive celestial show lasted about 14 minutes.

If you missed the cosmic show this time, you'll have to wait until next year to catch another super moon or total lunar eclipse.

As for the "flower" part of the super flower blood moon, well that's named after the large number of flowers that bloom during the month of May.