January 2018 has had two full moons.
It is sufficiently uncommon to make it newsworthy.
Certainly this celestial event has caught the attention of the media.

The full moon occurring on January 31st 2018 is known as a supermoon.
Its orbit brings it closer to earth than at other times.
Correspondingly it appears larger and brighter.

It is said to be a blue moon.
This is nothing to with the colour of the moon.
This is because we have two full moons in a calendar month.

This is also the date of a lunar eclipse.
That is to say the moon will be eclipsed by the earth.
When the shadow passes over the moon it will take on a red tint.
Sadly for Tiree the eclipse was only visible on the other side of the earth.

This ‘super blue blood moon’ takes place no matter the weather.
However seeing the blue supermoon was weather dependent.
And – the weather forecast was not at all promising.

The moon was due to rise around 5:00pm in an ENE direction.
Bright blue skies and hail laden clouds danced together.
Before 5:00pm the sky momentarily lightened.
Then dark clouds appeared overhead.

Having venturing outside once I was bitterly disappointed.
Bitterly because of the biting cold northerly wind.
And sorry that the moon was hidden from view.

I would have one more attempt at seeking to see the moon rise.
The clouds parted momentarily at just the right time.
It wasn’t quite the moon rising over the horizon.
But it was large!

The next time the clouds broke the moon was much higher in the sky.
By this time I was standing by the memorial – a vantage point.
Encouragingly there was someone with similar thoughts.
We shared photographing and the bitterly cold wind.

It was magnificent.
The view was monumental!
In the foreground the monument.
And behind the monument the blue supermoon.

Twelve hours earlier our south facing bedroom had been lit up by moonlight.
This was the case even with the moon high in the sky to the west.
A mobile phone photograph would have to suffice.

Just a reminder that we have had two full moons in  the month of January.
We were on the Mainland, on the East coast, at the time of the first.
It was what is referred to as the ‘Wolf moon’.

January’s Wolf Moon as seen from Dundee

This is Life on Tiree on the night of the super blue blood moon.
‘Blue Blood’ – is this not verging on lunacy!
Or is it equated with royalty?