Those clued into what’s going on in outer space may well have excitedly circled this date in their calendars yonks ago; but for those that remain unaware, let us fill you in. A blood moon eclipse, which could make the moon appear red, is on the cards this Sunday (May 15) carrying over into Monday (May 16).
Now, getting up even earlier on a Monday morning is an idea born in hell for most people, but this one time may well be worth it. How often do you get the chance to see a full lunar eclipse forming a blood moon? Not very, is the answer — the phenomenon tends to only happen up to twice a year, and is often not visible enough due to forces beyond our control.
Let’s hope the clouds are in our favour this time around (not a sure thing in Amsterdam) to give us optimum viewing of the event. For those wishing to catch a glimpse of the blood moon, it should be visible in the Netherlands between 5. 37 am and 5.36 am in the early hours of May 16 – leaving you with the catch-22 of sleep deprivation-based dilemmas: stay up late or set your alarm for stupid o’clock. Either way, you’ll likely be a little yawny in your first meeting of the week, but the sighting of a blood moon should be a pretty reasonable trade-off.