Lunar Eclipse

For star gazers, Sunday night was a special/rare combination of events. There was a total eclipse of the moon that was visible here in the neighborhood and it happened on a "supermoon", then the moon is at the closest point in its orbit to earth.

This supermoon was particularly special, though, because it coincided with a lunar eclipse, which gave it its distinctive pink color, and earned it the title "Blood Moon". The last time this happened was in 1982; the next will be in 2033.

I set up my telescope and mounted the digital camera, but the cloud cover at moon-rise obscured the moon and the chances of getting any photos looked dim. After a couple of hours the clouds moved out of view and the moon was in clear view for hours.

Here are some of my photos of the September 27th lunar eclipse. The first photo is the "supermoon" prior to the start of the eclipse.



The first sign of eclipse appears on the left of this photo as the earth's shadow moves onto the moon.



The earth's shadow is now clearly visible on the left side of the photo.



The earth's shadow has now eclipsed nearly half of the moon.



More than half of the moon is eclipsed and the reddish "Blood Moon" starts to appear in the next four photos









The moon is totally eclipsed and a full "Blood Moon".