Double Row

A Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow. This can only occur on the night of a full Moon and when the Sun, Earth and Moon are very closely aligned. A Total Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Moon falls entirely within the Earth's Umbra – the innermost and darkest part of its shadow.

The Earth’s atmosphere refracts the Sun's white light in such a way that the shorter wavelengths of light, the Greens through to the Purples, are scattered away more strongly than the longer wavelengths at the redder end of the spectrum. The Moon passes through this faint remaining red light, giving it a stunning reddish colour cast.

This sequence starts at the bottom-right, just after Sunset when the Moon was still yellow and distorted through the denser part of the Earth’s atmosphere, it shows the Earth’s shadow increasing on the Moon’s surface through Total Eclipse. The top row continues in the opposite direction, starting at top-left the eclipsed red Moon slowly exits the Earth’s shadow, until it is a bright Full Moon again. The images were then carefully aligned, and this composition was created. It shows not only the different stages of the eclipse, but the slight yellow cast the Moon has when imaged through the denser atmosphere near the horizon, through to the crisp white full Moon high overhead.