Red Moon Eclipse

After the rather disappointing extreme supermoon phenomenon back in March this year I am hoping that this weeks red moon eclipse will be visible in Thailand in the early hours of Thursday 16th June.

What is a Red Moon Eclipse?

Well to be honest until I did a bit of research I hadn’t got a clue. But here’s what I found out. To start with you need a lunar eclipse, apparently total is better and as it happens a total lunar eclipse will be visible in all regions of Thailand between 1.22am and 4am on Thursday morning, reaching its maximum effect at 2.22am.  In fact this eclipse will be the longest recorded for quite some time.

Now if you are like me you would probably think that during a total eclipse the moon would disappear just like the sun does in a solar eclipse. Well if you do, then like me you would be wrong, since the moon although in the Earth’s shadow still receives some sunlight and is visible to a degree.

Apparently this is caused by refraction of light bouncing off the Earth’s atmosphere and the way the colour spectrum works with blue/green being weaker than red! Whatever,  the effect according to the scientists is that the moon appears red or some shade of it anyway.

Of course this being Thailand I am sure that the phenomenon of the red moon eclipse will not go unnoticed given that 16th June is also the day the next Thai lottery is drawn, perhaps 222 would be a good number

For the superstitious I wonder could the red moon rising cause astrologers and soothsayers to predict a change in the colour of the countries politics in the forthcoming general election!

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Related posts:

1. Firecrackers in Thailand
2. Extreme Supermoon in Thailand