Total Lunar Eclipse of October 8, 2014

October 11, 2014

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Photographers: Dave Lynch; John Chumack
Summary AuthorsDave Lynch; John Chumack

Shown above, at top, is a photo of this past Wednesday's (October 8, 2014) lunar eclipse, taken at totality from Topanga, California. At bottom is a montage of the lunar eclipse as observed from atop Huffman Dam in Fairborn, Ohio.

Much of that beautiful crimson skylight you see after sunset goes right past you and gets refracted into the Earth’s shadow (umbra) where it reaches the Moon. The line where night meets day on the earth is called the terminator. If the terminator is cloudy, less sunlight gets through and the eclipsed Moon is relatively dark. If it is cloud-free or nearly so, a lot more red twilight gets through and the eclipsed Moon is bright and reddish.

On the bottom photo, note that the star to the bottom right of the Moon (at center, in the 5 o’clock position) was occulted by the Moon itself 30 minutes before totality.

Photo details: Bottom photo - Canon 6D camera; 80 mm refractor lens; 2x Barlow (1200mm); ISO 800 to ISO 6400; 1/400 sec. to 2 sec exposure.