SEPTEMBER BLOOD MOON

A blood moon is a term for the reddish appearance of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse. This occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on the Moon. Sunlight passes through Earth's atmosphere, which scatters the blue light and allows longer-wavelength red light to pass through and reach the Moon, giving it its characteristic crimson colour.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

LUNAR ECLIPSE

Thousands turned to the sky to witness a lunar eclipse as a blood moon rose over Victoria last Tuesday night. Lunar eclipses occur when the sun, Earth and moon all line up, with Earth casting a shadow across the moon. A blood moon is so called from the red hue of the moon at totality, but the hue the moon appears would depend on local atmospheric conditions: If there’s enough pollution, volcanic dust or cloud cover, the moon can appear quite red. We were lucky enough not to have cloud cover and the moon appeared quite red! Australians will not get to see another lunar eclipse until 2025.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

LUNAR ECLIPSE

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy) with Earth between the other two, and only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to either node of its orbit.

A totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called a blood moon for its reddish colour, which is caused by Earth completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the Moon. The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth's atmosphere. This light appears reddish for the same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light.

Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. A total lunar eclipse can last up to nearly 2 hours, while a total solar eclipse lasts only up to a few minutes at any given place, because the Moon's shadow is smaller. Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the My Corner of the World meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

BLOOD MOON

Curiosity and awe have greeted a complete lunar eclipse, the longest one of this century and visible in much of the world. The so-called "blood moon," when it turns a deep red, was visible at different times in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America on Saturday when the Sun, Earth and Moon lined up perfectly, casting Earth's shadow on the Moon.

The total eclipse lasted one hour, 42 minutes and 57 seconds, though a partial eclipse preceded and followed it, meaning the Moon spent a total of three hours and 54 minutes in the Earth's umbral shadow, according to NASA.

Mars is currently traveling closer to Earth than it has since 2003, so some observers might have also seen what looked like an orange-red star, but it was in fact the Red Planet. It is a very unusual coincidence to have a total lunar eclipse and Mars at opposition on the same night. Mars is at its brightest in 15 years.

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,

and also part of the Through my Lens meme,

and also part of the Seasons meme,

and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

SILVER SUN

On July 13, a partial solar eclipse was visible from the southeastern coast of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand’s Stewart Island, as well as the northern coast of Antarctica. Earth has not seen a solar eclipse fall on a Friday the 13th since December 1974. Adding to the phenomenon, this moon will be a so-called dark supermoon—a new moon that arrives when the lunar orb is especially close to Earth.

While I was unable to catch sight of the partial eclipse, the diagram below shows the tiny sliver of the sun was obscured by the edge of the moon at maximum eclipse.

What I did get to photograph earlier that morning, however, was a foggy sky and a silver sun amongst the gum tree leaves. That too was quite beautiful on a cold Winter morning in Melbourne.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,

and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

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.

CITY DAILY PHOTO - THEME DAY: 2011 MY PHOTO OF THE YEAR

The lunar eclipse of 16 Jun 2011 occurred during our winter, but we were fortunate in Melbourne to be able to watch it in cloudless skies. I remember getting up at 4:00 a.m. and in the bitter cold setting up my camera in order to capture the event. I had some unsuccessful shots, but here is the moon at totality. I was rather pleased with this one and even managed to rush off to the airport straight afterwards in order to catch my interstate flight for a work trip!

This oost is for the City Daily Photo Theme Day meme.