I completely forgot to post this because of how hard school was hitting. I have a little moment to breathe (I really do mean little), so here it finally is. I wish I could have posted this on the day of the eclipse.
I happened to be lucky enough to see the total lunar eclipse on November 8. However, I wasn’t lucky enough to have any half decent camera with me; the only images I had were taken with my phone’s somewhat lackluster camera. This was my first time observing one and think it was worth the sacrificed sleep.
The event begin at around 3:30 am when the Earth’s shadow started to eclipse the moon. The initial moon was basically a full moon, I just don’t have a photo of it. The full moon started with a tiny dark patch on its side, as if a cloud was passing in front of it. But the patch continued to grow until you could see the moon actually wane.
I divided the images into a few chapters to make it easier to navigate the page. There are timestamps for images, all of them are in Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5).
The pictures greatly exaggerate the red tint. When looking at the eclipsed moon with the naked eye, it was mostly near-black gray and a very small tinge of copper/rust colour.
Waning moon
So far, you can see the moon as if it were in the middle of its phase; nothing looks out of the ordinary.
Red tinge appears
Now the moon starts to look odd. As it continues to darken, you can see a dark reddish tinge appear. Again, this is greatly exaggerated in the camera. With your own eyes, the moon’s dark parts would look like a very dark grey.
Still, this was surreal to look at. It was as if something was stealing the moon’s usual light and replacing it with really non-reflective material.
Total eclipse
Now comes the coolest part. Around 5:20 was when the moon completely entered the Earth’s shadow. Until about 6 am, the moon gradually darkened and even the camera picks this up. The moon at the peak of the eclipse was very dark, it looked like a large ball of really dark, non-reflective material; something out of a sci-fi movie.
The eclipse was really cool to see. The moon has been always been a reflective object in the sky that provides some light at night. To see it darken and virtually vanish from the sky in just 2 hours was surreal.
The term “blood moon” is a bit exaggerated since the moon only appears dark crimson in photographs. When viewed with regular eyes, it’ll be nearly black and a dark copper tint at best. Still, being able to see such an event was great. The next event to see will be the total solar eclipse happening in April 2024, which will be a far cooler one to see.