Blue moon 2018

January 31 2018 was quite exciting as there was a “super blue blood moon” . This is a combination of a super moon, blue moon and lunar eclipse.

A super moon is when the moon is at the closest point in its orbit around the Earth.

A blue moon is the 2nd full moon in a month. As full moons come around about every 29 days, most months only contain one. There was a full moon on 2 Jan so the one on the 31st qualifies as a blue moon. Incidentally there will be no full moon in Feb 2018.

A blood moon comes from the rusty red appearance during a total lunar eclipse, when the moon is in the Earth's shadow. See my blog of Sept 2015.

The lunar eclipse wasn't visible in the UK as it occurred during daylight. At least I saw the super blue moon (taken with a hand held camera) -

Horniman Butterfly House

The butterfly house at Horniman Gardens opened towards the end of 2017 and is the latest attraction  in their Living Collection. The other things are the alpacas, jellyfish and bees in the Animal Walk, the Aquarium and Nature Base.

A limited number of people are allowed in at one time. The butterfly house is rather small compared to others I have been to, but is full of tropical plants suitable for the butterflies. According to the info board, the butterflies come from the Americas and from Asia. None from Europe, Africa or Australasia.

There didn't seem to be many butterflies flying around, but there were a few posing on the leaves. I hope I have identified them correctly -

Chocolate pansy

Hercales longwing

It was very warm inside, 30.4 °C   but I was surprised it was only 51% humidity

papaya

Hercules longwing

Chocolate pansy

A plate of food for the butterflies

Large tree nymph

 There is a display case showing the metamorphosis stages of caterpillars, eggs & chrysalis.

Postman butterfly

Owl butterfly, the largest butterfly that I saw

Leopard lacewing

 This butterfly liked the purple phone case -

Zebra longwing (?)

Before you leave you are asked to check yourself in 2 mirrors to make sure no butterflies go out with you. Entry tickets are quite expensive for such a small place and I think visits are limited to 15 minutes. Nevertheless it is a good attraction to Horniman.