Like some of you, I outran the clouds just in time to catch last night’s total lunar eclipse. What a beautiful event! Here are some gorgeous pictures from our readers and Universe Today staff — souvenirs if you will — of the last total lunar eclipse anywhere until January 31, 2018. The sky got so dark, and the Moon hung like a plum in Earth’s shadow for what seemed a very long time. Did you estimate the Moon’s brightness on the Danjon Scale? My brother and I both came up with L=2 from two widely-separated locations; William Wiethoff in Hayward, Wisconsin rated it L=1. All three estimates would indicate a relatively dark eclipse.
Nicely-done sequence of eclipse phases taken early September 28, 2015. Click to enlarge. Credit: Own Llewellyn
The darkness of the umbra was particularly noticeable in the west quarter of the Moon in the giant volcanic plain known as Oceanus Procellarum. This makes sense as that portion of the Moon was located closest to the center of the Earth’s dark, inner umbra. The plain is also dark compared to the brighter lunar highlights, which being more reflective, formed a sort of pale ring around the northern rim of the lunar disk.
Salute to the final eclipse of the current tetrad that began 17 months ago. Credit: Jason Major
The bottom or southern rim of the Moon, located farthest from the center of the umbra, appeared a lighter yellow-orange throughout totality.
Wide angle view of the Moon (lower left) during totality in a star-rich sky with the Aquila Milky Way visible at right. Credit: Bob King
This is just a small sampling of the excellent images arriving from our readers. More are flowing in on Universe Today’s Flickr site. Thank you everyone for your submissions!
A crowd gather to watch the Moon during partial eclipse prior to totality. Credit: Robert SparksA hint of the penumbra shows in this photo. Hint: look near left top. Credit: Roger HutchinsonA bloody Moon iindeed! Notice how dark Oceanus Procellarum (top) appears. Credit: Chris Lyons“Super Blood Moon”. Credit: Alok SinghalNice montage of images from eclipse start to finish. Credit: Mike GreenhamOne of the most awesome aspects of the eclipse was how many stars could be seen near the Moon. This picture was taken with a 100mm telesphoto lens. Credit: Bob KingRare shot of the totally eclipsed Moon and bright meteor. Credit: VegaStar Carpentier PhotographyA lucky break in the clouds made this photographer happy. Credit: Moe AliMary Spicer made exposures of the eclipsed Moon every 5 minutes. During totality, the Moon dropped behind a tree so she had to relocate the camera, hence the small gap in the sequence. 35 shots in total and stacked into one frame using StarStax. Credit: Mary SpicerThe Moon caught after totality between clouds through a small refracting telescope. Credit: Bob KingAnother fine montage displaying all the partial phase plus early, mid and late totality. Credit: Andre van der Hoeven
5 Replies to “A Bloody Beautiful Supermoon Eclipse!”
Hi Bob,
Thanks for that update, we too scaled the darkness of the eclipse as L=2 – so it must be right! Clouds came in for totality but cleared straight after of course. I thought the eclipse looked “awesome” in the period after the event with part of the disc covered only by the penumbra. Friends in Shetland and Nigeria got total cloud but Germany was much better placed. We were based in a girls school in Truro Cornwall, UK.
Roseland Observatory.
Thanks Brian for your observation. If you haven’t already, send you L value along to Dr. Keen at [email protected]
WOW! Three of us piled into the car and drove up into the local mountains. The site I’d picked is where I go for star gazing with my telescope(s). At first the site looked perfect.. then time came for the moon to come up and it was hidden behind a mountain! ACK! Then Sean, a casual friend of 15 years, drove by and suggested we follow her to her home. So we did. The view from there was PERFECT! L=1(?) We hung out for a couple hours taking pics and looking at the eclipse with binocs. and 4″ scope…. suuweet! MY CAMERA wouldn’t even show the moon thru the viewfinder.. so that was a bust. BUT the wifey-poo’s Lumix did a bang up job. I haven’t D/L’d the images yet.. but they looked good in preview.
Aqua,
Great story … with a happy ending!
What a Night we had an Astro Garden Party here in Belgium conditions were Perfect, At the height of the Eclipse the top of the Blood Red Supermoon was barely visible (L=1-) but had an Ever so Slight Ring around its circumference also like Bob I was surprised by the Huge amount of Stars visible close to the Moon it was also fantastic when at the later stages where the shadow of Earth was 1/2 way to the right so you had a Bright White on the Left of the Moon and a Musky Blood Red Colour (just like the wine we were drinking) on the right side until the Eclipse passed and the Moons Brightness was back 30% higher than average at 06:24 am BST we were all glad to hear that our American Cousins managed to get some Great Photo Shots in between the clouds……
Hi Bob,
Thanks for that update, we too scaled the darkness of the eclipse as L=2 – so it must be right! Clouds came in for totality but cleared straight after of course. I thought the eclipse looked “awesome” in the period after the event with part of the disc covered only by the penumbra. Friends in Shetland and Nigeria got total cloud but Germany was much better placed. We were based in a girls school in Truro Cornwall, UK.
Roseland Observatory.
Thanks Brian for your observation. If you haven’t already, send you L value along to Dr. Keen at [email protected]
WOW! Three of us piled into the car and drove up into the local mountains. The site I’d picked is where I go for star gazing with my telescope(s). At first the site looked perfect.. then time came for the moon to come up and it was hidden behind a mountain! ACK! Then Sean, a casual friend of 15 years, drove by and suggested we follow her to her home. So we did. The view from there was PERFECT! L=1(?) We hung out for a couple hours taking pics and looking at the eclipse with binocs. and 4″ scope…. suuweet! MY CAMERA wouldn’t even show the moon thru the viewfinder.. so that was a bust. BUT the wifey-poo’s Lumix did a bang up job. I haven’t D/L’d the images yet.. but they looked good in preview.
Aqua,
Great story … with a happy ending!
What a Night we had an Astro Garden Party here in Belgium conditions were Perfect, At the height of the Eclipse the top of the Blood Red Supermoon was barely visible (L=1-) but had an Ever so Slight Ring around its circumference also like Bob I was surprised by the Huge amount of Stars visible close to the Moon it was also fantastic when at the later stages where the shadow of Earth was 1/2 way to the right so you had a Bright White on the Left of the Moon and a Musky Blood Red Colour (just like the wine we were drinking) on the right side until the Eclipse passed and the Moons Brightness was back 30% higher than average at 06:24 am BST we were all glad to hear that our American Cousins managed to get some Great Photo Shots in between the clouds……