Supermoon in Tyldesley

It's 'Supermoon' time again, and this one is really special as it's a 'Super Blue Blood Moon' according to the experts in astronomy. The phenomenon hasn't been seen in Europe for over 36 years and so it would be rude not to at least try to get a photograph of it. This is first shot that I took from my back garden in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester.

'Supermoon' is the name for a full moon when it's at the closest point in its orbit around the Earth. This makes it appear up to 14 percent brighter and 30 percent larger than normal. A 'Blue Moon' occurs when there is a second full moon in a calendar month. The blue moon isn't actually blue at all, it's just the name give to the second full moon.

The term 'Blood Moon' comes from the rusty red appearance during a total lunar eclipse, when the moon is in the Earth’s shadow. The colour is caused by blue light scattering as the sun’s rays refract through the Earth’s atmosphere. In the UK this was only visible for about 10 minutes after moonrise.

I decided that I needed a local landmark to put in the foreground of the shot to make it more interesting, but exposing for the moon and the foreground is very difficult without filters or multiple shots. So I just settled for an atmospheric shot of the moon over Astley Green Colliery, which is just down the road from where I live.

As you can see from the above photo, there was a lot of cloud about in Tyldesley, and I only had a few moments when the full moon actually appeared. Even then it was still quite hazy when I took this photograph of the full moon itself in a slightly longer clear spell later on in the evening.

Unfortunately cloudy skies limited what we could see here in the North West of England, but just as I was closing my bedroom curtains and going to bed, I noticed that the whole of my back garden was being lit up by the moon. So I dashed downstairs and went outside my front door to take this last shot. It was absolutely freezing!

Being after midnight actually made it February 1st, but it was still the same night and full moon!

Here's a link to video made by Michael Tomas in London where he had an incredible view of the 'Super Blue Blood Moon' against the London skyline. In the video Michael explains how he planned and took his incredible shots.

Click this link to read a transcript of Michael's video and some amazing still photographs.