Friday 18 April 2014

LUNAR ECLIPSE IN MELBOURNE

A total lunar eclipse took place on April 15, 2014. It is the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2014, and the first in a tetrad (four total lunar eclipses in series). Subsequent eclipses in the tetrad are those of October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015, and September 28, 2015.

The eclipse was visible in the Pacific Ocean region, including Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Americas. The moon passed south of the centre of the Earth's shadow. As a result, the northern part of the moon was noticeably darker than the southern part. It occurred during the ascending phase of the moon's orbit, part of lunar saros 122.

The eclipse was visible in Melbourne at moonrise and fortunately we had a clear sky. I took some photos from home, but it was quite tricky to get the exposure right. These are the best photos I managed to shoot. To the left of the moon, the bright spot is Mars and above the moon is the star Spica in the constellation of Virgo.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.



7 comments:

  1. PS: A rather nice blood moon eclipse photo I took in 2011, here:
    http://melbournedaily.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/city-daily-photo-theme-day-2011-my.html

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  2. Great photo and you are lucky to see the blood moon eclipse.

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  3. Well done, beautiful captures of the Lunar Eclipse! Enjoy your weekend and Happy Easter!

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  4. Great fotos, interesting post, best regard from Belgium

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  5. Love your perspective in the first one. Great shot! Greetings from Spain.

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  6. Great picture of the Moon - mine are a bit clouded!

    I was in East Gippsland - wonderful dark skies, but rather too much cloud.

    Stewart M - Melbourne

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