The January 2019 Lunar Eclipse was spectacular and could be seen right from your driveway.
It started at 8:30pm and finished 5 hours later at 1:48am. These are my 13 favorite shots of the 700 that I made.
The next one is May 26th in the pre-dawn hours, however the rising Sun will blot out half of the show for us in Texas.
Click to see a time lapse of the lunar eclipse!
Lunar Eclipse
By a strange quirk of fate, the Sun, the Earth & the Moon are just the right size and just the right distance from each other to cause a variety of eclipses. The image above is of a Lunar Eclipse, when the Earth gets between the Sun and the Moon and casts a shadow on the Moon.
The moon’s orbit is inclined by 5 degrees so an eclipse does not happen with every revolution and only a portion of the Earth gets the full show. But when they line up, it is spectacular!
Over the course of hours, you will slowly see the shadow of our Earth creep across the face of the Moon, It starts off as a light shadow, then grows larger and darker and when the Moon is fully in the shadow, it turns a subtle shade of orange. Then the process reverses itself and you are back with a full Moon and all of its brightness.
Why does the Moon turn orange?
What else can you think of that turns orange in the sky?
Sunsets as viewed through Earth’s atmosphere! The orange that you are seeing on the moon has travelled through the Earth’s atmosphere which bends the light towards the Moon in Earth’s shadow, and then the Moon is reflecting it back to your eyes!
Sunsets as viewed through Earth’s atmosphere! The orange that you are seeing on the moon has travelled through the Earth’s atmosphere which bends the light towards the Moon in Earth’s shadow, and then the Moon is reflecting it back to your eyes!
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Experiment!
On May 26th, Texas will experience the first half of a Lunar Eclipse in the early morning hours before sunrise. Why only half? The rotating Earth and the rising Sun will take us out the eclipse's view.
If you miss this one, you will have to wait almost a whole year until May 22, 2022 for the next one in our area!