By Prof. A,

It’s not often the moon is a trending topic on Twitter.  But it’s even less often when the moon looks as it did Sunday evening (it hasn’t happened since 1982).  The so-called “Super Harvest Moon” or “Super Harvest Blood Moon” created a trending topic with hundreds of thousands of tweets under the hashtag #SuperBloodMoon.

So what is a #SuperBloodMoon.  It’s essentially a total lunar eclipse combined with two other occurrences.  According to National Geographic, on Sunday the moon made its closest approach to Earth this year.

For a more detailed description, see their article on the Rare Super Moon

The appearance of the moon did change during the night.  During the eclipse, it appeared reddish in color (hence, the “Super Blood Moon” term).

NASA offered descriptions and streaming video of the #SuperBloodMoon Sunday… http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/eclipse/index.html

For another description on how a Super Harvest Moon or #SuperBloodMoon happens, NASA offers this video:

Additional Sources: New York Times