Blue moon will leave us standing alone – SA won't get the triple effect

It's been more than a 150 years since a rare super blue blood moon has been experienced but sadly South Africans will have to wait much longer.

On Wednesday night, a super moon (when the moon is unusually close to the earth making it bigger and brighter), a blue moon (a second full moon in a calender month) and a blood moon (a moment in a lunar eclipse when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, with only red light reaching the moon turning it a red colour) will coincide.

The event, which last happened in 1866, will be visible predominantly in the northern hemisphere, with only some countries (Australia and New Zealand) in the southern hemisphere catching a glimpse. By the time countries like South Africa go into night, the alignment needed for the triple lunar effect to be experienced would have passed. But South Africans can watch the event here.

According to Vaneshree Maharaj, the communications manager at South African National Space Agency, this unique occurrence will have no effect on the tides locally, but there might just be a higher tide pull in the Northern Hemisphere. DM

To find out which lunar events South Africans will experience this year, click here.