Portland woke to an early morning super lunar eclipse and there's more to come this week

Keep watching the skies for Mercury kissing Venus!

Blood MoonUnsplash

The lunar eclipse early Wednesday 26 morning was a special treat for Portland residents. But don't worry if you missed out--there's more star gazing to come!

Mercury will be visible in the week following the eclipse in a special luminary event of its own: "kissing" Venus.

In the nights after this “Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse” it will also be possible to see tiny Mercury shining next to the super-bright planet Venus, which returns to the post-sunset night sky as the “Evening Star. ” --Forbes

What was special about the skies for the week of Wednesday 26, 2021? Several things!

1. We haven't had a full lunar eclipse for 2 and a half years.

Full lunar eclipses occur when the sun, Earth and moon are all perfectly lined up.

The astronomical term for this type of alignment is syzygy, which comes from the Greek word for being paired together. --timeanddate

2. It's a Super Moon

Super moons happen only when the moon is full and orbits close to the earth. Wednesday's moon is the closest, brightest, and biggest of 2021.

3. It's a Blood Moon

The moon can look yellow, brown, or orange during an eclipse but on Wednesday it will appear blood red. The moon doesn't have it's own light, but during a lunar eclipse we see the sun's rays bent and filtered through our atmosphere.

Blood MoonWikimedia commons

The official name of Wednesday's moon is a Super Flower Blood Moon! Bit of a mouthful, but the flower part is because it's occuring in Spring when all the flowers are out.

When was it visible in Portland?

Wednesday's lunar event was only fully visible on the west coast--lucky us! But other parts of the US was able to see a partial eclipse. It was also fully visible in Australia, New Zealand, Western South America, and South East Asia.

The eclipse peaked at 4:18am in Portland, but enthusiasts started watching a little earlier to catch the entire event. One of the special features about Wednesdays eclipse is it's only 15 minutes long. Fairly quick as far as lunar eclipses go.

Eclipses actually have five phases. If you started watching early (1:47am in Portland) you'd have seen the moon dim to grey. It became red only in the middle phases. "Totality" is the name for phase 3 when it's completely red and a total lunar eclipse.

Moon phasesUnsplash

Phase 5 finished properly at 5:38am.

"Although the totality in the May 26, 2021, eclipse lasts for less than 15 minutes, a partial umbral eclipse precedes and then follows totality by nearly 1 1/2 hours each time. So, from start to finish, the moon takes a little over three hours to pass through the Earth’s dark shadow." --EarthSky

The weather report for Wednesday is cloudy, but if you look out in the sky again tonight you may spot Mercury "kissing" Venus!

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