It bothers me that Matt Drudge (or his readers) keep falling for this.
Cc has a leg up on this since he is from New Jersey
A few hints – the last lunar eclipse was on August 18, 2016
Where in New Jersey would you have to be to take this picture from 25 miles away?
What time was moonrise in New York City on August 23/24th?
What is the definition of a “blood moon” and its scientific significance? How is a red moon different than a blood moon?
You have to admire the complete absence of pollution in New York!
* update *
A moon horizon angle of 90 degrees would be straight up and down. 78° would be tilting to the left by 12 degrees, so the picture lines up given the time and place.
In the 1970s, I was on a bus trip that went down the New Jersey Turnpike – the orange haze over New York City went for probably twenty miles. Without all that pollution to block the sunlight, I bet New York gets a lot hotter these days.
The August 18th eclipse was what is called a penumbra eclipse – the Earth blocked a small portion of the light – not enough to be perceptanpble even if you knew it was going on.
I usually get censored when I reply to a posting before you do, Fred.
Some facts:
1.) The spot in the sky where the moon rises changes each day – it is not the same spot where the sun rises.
2.)I am not familiar with the angle of the walls of the new Freedom Tower, but assuming they roughly align with the streets that are basically north-south for the avenues and east-west for the streets, this photo was taken west-northwest of the Freedom Tower.
3.) There are buildings in Morristown with a clear line of sight to the skyline from about the 6th floor or above.
4. ) I have seen moon rises like this over NYC when flying north across Morristown before banking to the right to land in Newark from the north when the wind is predominantly from the south.
Here is an interesting calculator
http://www.mooncalc.org/#/40.7774,-74.052,10/2016.08.25/15:57/1
The horizontal angle is the most interesting, and not depicted – it is the relative angle of the moon to the horizon – the “tilt”. Of course, below the equator, everything is backwards.
The “why” behind the math is
1) the Earth is at an angle relative to the orbit (hence seasons)
2) the moon’s orbit is elliptical (and the Earth)
3) the moon’s orbit is 5° inclined from the Earth’s equator – that is why lunar eclipses always happen near the equinoxes
And a science lesson
http://www.csuchico.edu/~abykerk-kauffman/courses/nsci342/0901packet/pdf/Moon%20Projects/Topic2MoonProjectS09.pdf
The freedom tower is not a rectangular building. It looks like a normal skyscraper that has been twisted – the top floor is not aligned to the city grid
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freedom_Tower_World_Trade_Center_NYC.jpg
The bottom picture shows the relatively recognizable building with the green pyramid on the top, but I wasn’t able to make anything else line up in 3D Google Earth
“Blood moon” is a term popularized by a book which means “the fourth consecutive total lunar eclipse without an intervening partial eclipse”. It has nothing to do with the color of the moon, which is based on the atmospheric effects, which is why it looks red/orange after moonrise, clouds and pollution permitting.
Drudge latched on to the term “blood moon” as some sign of the end times. And while the moon looks red during a lunar eclipse for a similar reason, this was not an eclipse
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/09/blood_moon_harvest_moon_superm.html
The pyramid topped building is Three Word Financial Center, aka the former American Express building at 200 Vesey street. To get it aligned with the Freedom Tower puts you at the old Central NJ train station, aka Liberty State Park – where you catch the boat to visit the Statue of Liberty. That matches where she apparently shoots lots of pictures. 25 miles is an exaggeration – it is a little over one mile