The Bloog

Here are some pictures taken earlier this evening by yours truly. The lunar eclipse took place today, February 20 2008, between roughly 9PM and 10PM EST. For those interested, the shots were taken with a Nikon D50 with a 70-300mm VR lens, in shutter priority mode. Images were cropped and resized, slight sharpening applied, however colors, brightness and contrast were left as taken. This was my first time photographing a lunar eclipse (on a very cold winter night).

I thought a little description from NASA may come in handy:

A total eclipse of the Moon occurs during the night of Wednesday, February 20/21, 2008. The entire event is visible from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon’s disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray.

An eclipse of the Moon can only take place at Full Moon, and only if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth’s shadow. The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where Earth blocks some (but not all) of the Sun’s rays. In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.

This page at NASA discusses this year’s lunar eclipse in more detail. For more general info on lunar eclipses, read the Lunar Eclipse for Beginners.