one of two high powered telescopes set up at the Kuching Waterfront
on Wednesday night.
KUCHING: Malaysians had a rare chance of witnessing a total eclipse of the moon known as the Super Blue Blood Moon last Wednesday night.
The phenomena lasted for five hours starting from 6.51pm until 12.08am.
The eclipsed moon was partially seen at 8.51pm and at 9.29pm the full moon eclipse which eventually turned blood red lasted for a few hours. The full moon eclipse was over slightly after midnight.
The super blue blood moon eclipse phenomena happened when the planet earth came in a straight path between the Sun which is 150 million kilometres away and the Moon which is 384, 400 kilometres away, thus causing a full moon eclipse.
The spectacular and a rare triple display of a blue moon, a super moon and a total lunar eclipse which people in other parts of the world could also observed was coined and also dubbed as the super blue blood moon as the moon crosses into the shadow of the Earth and turns blood red.
According to Ismandy Ali, the curator of Sultan Iskandar Planetarium Kuching when met during the public observation session of the phenomena organised with the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia, Topography Mapping Division Sarawak at the Kuching Waterfront Extension (behind Hotel Margherita Kuching) on Wednesday evening explained that the phenomena was dubbed as super blue blood moon as it occurred when the moon was located nearest to the earth and at the same time when the moon was in full phase, and it occurred in the same month i.e on 2 January and 31 January and also because of its blood red colour.
Two telescopes were set up by the Sultan Iskandar Planetarium and Ministry of Education, Science and Research Technology at the Kuching Waterfront Extension (behind Hotel Margherita Kuching) on Wednesday evening to enable the public to witness and view the phenomena.
The last full eclipse of Super Blue Blood Moon occurred 152 years ago in 1866.
