PETALING JAYA: Stargazers can catch the “Super Flower Blood Moon” lunar eclipse virtually on Wednesday (May 26) through a live-streaming session run by the National Planetarium.
The livestream session is slated to start at 6.30pm on Wednesday and will be hosted on the National Planetarium's Facebook page and YouTube channel as the observation gallery is closed during the movement control order.
"Telescope facilities are not opened to the public at the National Planetarium due to the situation of the country, which is now under the MCO, ” it said in a post on its official Facebook account on Tuesday (May 25).
According to the tentative livestream programme, it will start at 6.30pm with observations on the eclipse, followed by a sharing session by chief assistant director Mohd Zamri Shah Mastor at 7.30pm.
There will also be a trivia quiz at 9pm and a casual talk session before the livestream is scheduled to end at 10pm.
The name “Super Flower Blood Moon” is derived from several phenomena: the moon is closer to the Earth than usual so it will appear larger and brighter, hence "supermoon"; blood moon is because of the Earth's shadow casting a reddish or orange glow on the moon during a total lunar eclipse.
"Flower" refers to the blooms in May, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac, and has been attributed to Native American, Colonial American and European sources.
Hence, a full moon in May is called a flower moon.
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