Saudi Arabia’s sky witnessed at dawn on Monday a total lunar eclipse which started at 4:007 a.m. At 5:11 a.m., Earth’s satellite appeared bathed in blood-red light.
This was a rare astronomical event when a swollen “supermoon” and lunar eclipse combined for the first time in decades.
The celestial show, visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, West Asia and the east Pacific, was the result of the sun, Earth and a larger-than-life, extra-bright moon lining up for just over an hour.
Astronomer Dr. Sharaf Bin Rafood Al-Safiani, who is the member of Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Scienc (AUASS), said the lunar eclipse will be the last this year.
The “blood moon” appeared in stages across the planet as the satellite reached its closest orbital point to Earth, called perigee, while in its brightest phase.
The resulting “supermoon” appeared 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than when at apogee, the farthest point — which is about 31,000 miles (49,900 kilometers) from perigee.
But some light still crept around the planet’s edges and was filtered through its atmosphere, casting an eerie red light that creates the blood moon.
