| Total eclipse | |||||||||||||||||
 Mountain View, California at 11:23 UTC, end of totality | |||||||||||||||||
| Date | 26 May 2021 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gamma | 0.4774 | ||||||||||||||||
| Magnitude | 1.0095 | ||||||||||||||||
| Saros cycle | 121 (55 of 82) | ||||||||||||||||
| Totality | 14 minutes, 30 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Partiality | 187 minutes, 25 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| Penumbral | 302 minutes, 2 seconds | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
A total lunar eclipse occurred on 26 May 2021.[1] A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy) with Earth between the other two, which can only happen at a full moon. The eclipsed moon appeared as a faint red disk in the sky due to a small amount of light being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere; this appearance gives a lunar eclipse its nickname of a Blood Moon.
It was the first total lunar eclipse since the January 2019 lunar eclipse, and the first in a series of an almost tetrad (with four consecutive total or deep partial lunar eclipses).[2] The next total eclipse occurred in May 2022. The event took place near lunar perigee; as a result, this supermoon was referred to in US media coverage as a "super flower blood moon",[Note 1][3][4] and elsewhere as a "super blood moon".[5][6]
It was followed two weeks later by an annular solar eclipse on 10 June 2021 over the northern polar regions of Earth.
This lunar eclipse was the first of an almost tetrad, the others being 19 Nov 2021 (P), 16 May 2022 (T) and 08 Nov 2022 (T).
- ^ 2021 May 26 chart: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC
- ^ "26 May 2021 Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)". timeanddate.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- ^ Look up! The Super Flower Blood Moon lunar eclipse is coming 26 May Archived 2021-05-24 at the Wayback Machine www.space.com
- ^ "The 'Super Flower Blood Moon' Is About to Light Up Skies! How to Watch This Week's Celestial Event". People.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
- ^ "Sydney takes 'pole position' in rare super blood moon display". smh.com.au. 26 May 2021. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
- ^ "Catch the super flower blood moon last night? It may not have been all it was cracked up to be". abc.net.au. 26 May 2021. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
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