The Scientific Activist

Full Lunar Eclipse

Posted by Nick Anthis on March 3, 2007
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i-9e9644aee9ce99a22a9061b4ff325245-100_3523.gifI got home tonight just in time to catch the full lunar eclipse. Although my crappy dinosaur of a camera doesn’t really do it justice, it was quite stunning here in Oxford. Observers across Europe, Africa, and East Asia had an excellent view of the eclipse tonight, and some viewers in the U.S. might just catch the end as the moon rises and sun sets this evening.

As the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon (an event that only happens once every couple of years), the moon is almost completely obscured from the sun’s light, except for a few rays refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere. As the shorter wavelengths of light tend to be filtered out by the Earth’s atmosphere, only red light makes it through to be reflected off of the moon, giving it the blood red hue observed tonight.

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Comments

  1. #1 Tony P
    March 3, 2007

    As luck would have it, the damned clouds moved in at about 4PM and didn’t go away. So I was unable to view the eclipse. Thanks for the photo.

  2. #2 Jonathan Vos Post
    March 4, 2007

    eclipse
    by
    Jonathan Vos Post

    Life goes on
    though sometimes you have doubts
    The sun comes up
    the moon comes out
    Where is the shadow
    in the daylight?

    Death goes on
    with closed or open eyes
    The stars are overhead
    wal;k thorugh the leaves
    Walk downhill slowly
    where the mist is white

    1720-1730
    26 Feb 1979

  3. #3 sonia
    March 4, 2007

    I saw it clearly here in the caribbean… absolutely beautiful. Red and smoky and luscious. I have to check out if the solar eclipse will be visible later this month…

  4. #4 geneticus
    March 6, 2007

    Where you drunk? :-)

  5. #5 carlie
    August 28, 2007

    i am soo mad at my self… i am not even a teenager and i missed my first lunar eclips and even my daddy slept through it.