Today there is the XXL blood moon

For 33 years, astronomers all over the world have been looking forward to this event and tonight the time has finally come: A total lunar eclipse! However, the earth's satellite will not become completely dark, but instead shows itself as a deep red "blood moon". What actually happens in the sky and where is the best place to see the spectacle?

Anyone who gets up very early tonight on Monday can observe a total lunar eclipse in Central Europe. The Earth's satellite will then also appear as a super moon, since it is particularly close to our planet on the night of September 28th and appears correspondingly large. It also presents itself as a so-called "blood moon": the red shimmer comes from long-wave light that is scattered by the Earth's atmosphere into the shadow cone. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, earth and moon are in a row, i.e. the earth blocks the sun’s light and the moon is in the earth’s shadow. The full moon is 356 kilometers so extremely close to earth that night that it can cause spring tides and tension in the earth's crust. If you just want to marvel at the highlight of the shadow play, which lasts several hours, it is best to set the alarm clock for half past four, because from 880:4 a.m. to 11:5 a.m. the moon is completely in the umbra: the darkness is total. The center is therefore at 24:4 a.m. However, the voltage already increases at 47:3 a.m. when the moon enters the umbra of the earth. Leaving the umbra at 07:6 a.m. will still be clearly visible. It was last in 27.

The special constellation has also called doomsday prophets onto the scene. Fundamentalist preachers predict the coming of the Lord and the end of the world at the conclusion of the tetrad of darkness. They refer to a verse in the book of Acts of the Bible, where it says: "The sun shall turn into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes." Another clue to this prediction, which has become known as the Blood Moon Prophecy, is that all four events of the current lunar eclipse tetrad fell on a Jewish holiday. The first and third eclipses of April 15, 2014 and April 4, 2015 fell on the Feast of Passover, and the second and final eclipses of October 8, 2014 and tonight fall on the Feast of Tabernacles. However, these signs can be easily refuted, because on the one hand the Jewish holiday calendar is based on the phases of the moon, so that special lunar events on Jewish holidays are undoubtedly not uncommon. Secondly, these festivals, which also stretch over several days, have often coincided with a tetrad, the last time in 1967/1968 - without the world ending right away.

It doesn't take much effort to observe the spectacle: just look to the south-west, a view out of the window can be enough. If you want, you can use binoculars. The moon will not pass through the center of the Earth's shadow, said Michael Khan of the European Space Agency (ESOC) control center, "but only just below" this line. The lunar eclipse could be observed practically everywhere equally well. However, artificial light is likely to be a nuisance. In good weather, the sky spectacle can be observed in its full length in many European countries, but also in parts of Africa and America. In the extreme east of Europe, however, only part of the eclipse can be seen and not the entire course because the moon sets after the eclipse begins. Astronomers assume that the end of the lunar eclipse should not be observed in the Baltic States and Romania. According to the weather report, the weather should also play along. In the pre-Alps region there could be a few clouds, but in the rest of Switzerland it should be mostly clear.