Lunar Eclipse in Wellington

I finally saw one. Some time ago, my brother in South America was talking to me on the phone while he was watching his first lunar eclipse. Normally non-plussed, he was very excited - "Oh my God, it has really gone blood red."

So, I had a mental note that on 28th August I must, at all costs, get out and observe the lunar eclipse which would be visible here. When the evening came, it was actually my wife who reminded me. We both went out onto our staircase to observe the sky.



The moon was glowing beautifully in the sky. The Eclipse was to have started, but we could not observe anything out of the ordinary. Then we noticed a small shadow beginning to creep up under the moon's disc.



The clumps of heavy clouds were moving quickly across the sky, and we got glimpses of the progressing eclipse through the gaps in the clouds. A strong, cold Wellington breeze was blowing, The shadow very slowly progressed from the bottom of the moon's disc to the top. As it covered more and more of the moon, the colour of the shaded region got redder. So this is what is also referred to as 'blood moon' or 'Red moon'.

I took some photos with my regular Digital Camera.









More information links

• Wikipedia Page
• NASA's page