Early on the morning of Wednesday, January 31, 2018, a rare triple coincidence occured – being dubbed in the media as a Super Blue Blood Moon. First, it was a lunar eclipse, where the moon was in the Earth’s shadow. When this happens the full moon becomes darkened and red (hence a ‘blood moon’). It was also a ‘super moon’, which meant that the moon appeared a bit larger than usual due to the fact that it was in the part of its orbit that was closest to the Earth. Finally, it was the second full moon of the calendar month of January, and such an occurrence is known as a ‘blue moon’. All three of these things are relatively rare, so the last time all three happened at once for a full moon visible in North America was in 1866.

Dr. Martin McHugh was interviewed on WDSU TV Morning News about this phenomenon.