Is the moon red because it’s washed in Blood? You know your Facebook feed goes nuts with everyone’s iPhone snapshots after each Lunar eclipse?
I was inspired to create my own piece of Space Art, with the moon eclipsing in and out of the Earth’s shadow.
This series is of the Lunar Eclipse from 31st Jan, 2018, superimposed over my APOD mosaic of the Ara Supernova Remnant.
Lunar shots taken on my Nikon D700 varying exposure times from 1/500th to 1 second as the moon darkened.
Taken from from suburban Melbourne, Australia.
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About the Lunar Eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind Earth and into its shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned with Earth between the other two. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon’s proximity to either node of its orbit. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. This light appears reddish for the same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light. Due to this reddish color, a totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called a blood moon.
Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse lasts a few hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any given place, due to the smaller size of the Moon’s shadow. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon. (Wiki)
“Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.”