While not as rare as solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are a sight to behold. This full moon was named the Blood Moon, as the color often is red due to the particles in the atmosphere. It's never known exactly what color the moon will be during an eclipse until it actually happens. The moon this morning was red, but not as deep as I've seen. I also see a bit of a blue color combined with the red and brown which is known as the Japanese Lantern Effect. Commonly seen right before or right after totality. This image was taken right when the moon entered totality, so there was still quite a bit of light at the top of the moon.
This is the moon seen at around 50% covered. At quick glance, one would look into the sky and see a half moon - nothing unusual here. But if you look closely at the full moon during a lunar eclipse, there are no shadows on the craters. A typical crescent moon will reveal lots of detail formed by the sun shining at an angle to our view. Looking closely at this image, there are no details such as this. The sun is hitting the surface from a point directly behind our view, so shadows of the contours of the moon's surface are not highlighted in light and shadow. The shadow of the earth on the moon is also at a different angle.
Here too, there are no craters visible due to shading and light. This image is about 90 percent totality. The light from the moon was beginning to wane quickly. As I capture moon images, I take multiple images of the moon and stack them together, so the little amount of light is a bit amplified by stacking. Unlike a solar eclipse, the total lunar eclipse lasts quite a long time, around an hour. The eclipse ran around six hours total, with totality starting around 1:20am. A long night for sure.
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