#celestial-events

#celestial-events

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lines up between the moon and the sun. The sun's light is blocked casting a shadow on to the moon. But in some eclipses sunlight does reach the moon indirectly, daubing the moon in a sunset palette. Any light that does pass shines through our atmosphere and transforms the lunar surface into a deep, coppery red.

A black moon occurs when there is a second new moon in a calendar month, or when there is a third new moon in a season of four new moons.

A rare planetary alignment will occur on August 10, involving Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune visible in an arc in the night sky.

Summer full moons are always low relative to winter full moons in the Northern Hemisphere, and therefore are more reddish in color.

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks in early May, producing up to 30 meteors per hour, though a bright Moon this year will diminish visibility.