Blood moon shines in the evening sky
The moon glittered not only silver but also blood red in the sky: In many places around the world, people marvelled at the total lunar eclipse—including in Germany.
With a camera, binoculars, or the naked eye, many people gazed up at the sky that evening, as a total lunar eclipse was visible. Because of its reddish, shadowy color, the celestial phenomenon is also called a blood moon.
Observers in Asia had the best views of this lunar eclipse—for example, in the cities of Dubai, Jerusalem, and Baghdad. From Saudi Arabia to the Philippines, as far north as the Arctic Ocean and down to Antarctica, as well as parts of East Africa and the western half of Australia, the spectacle was visible for its full duration of one hour and 22 minutes.
But even in Europe—in Germany around 8 p.m.—and the rest of Africa and Australia, at least some of the event graced the evening sky. During the last lunar eclipse in March, Americans enjoyed the best viewing conditions.
When does a total lunar eclipse occur?
A full moon always occurs when the moon, as we see it, is opposite the sun as it orbits Earth—on the night side of Earth. However, the moon is not always exactly in line with the Earth and the sun because its orbit is slightly tilted relative to Earth’s orbit. However, twice a year, the moon’s orbit crosses Earth’s orbit at exactly the same time as the full moon. Then the moon, Earth, and sun are exactly in line.
And then we see something we Earthlings rarely notice: the shadow cast into space by the sun’s rays. Because the Earth’s shadow—although it extends some 1.5 million kilometers—usually doesn’t touch anything, we don’t see it. Unless something passes directly into the Earth’s shadow: the moon during a lunar eclipse.
Blood red instead of black
During a total lunar eclipse, the moon’s disk suddenly turns fiery red. One would expect the moon to become completely black and invisible during the totality phase, because no sunlight reaches it at all – theoretically. In practice, a small amount of sunlight does reach the moon, because Earth’s atmosphere breaks up the sunlight passing through it, refracting the long-wave, red portions of the light so that they also land in Earth’s umbra, thus coloring the lunar surface red.
Anyone who wants to see a total lunar eclipse again will have to be patient:Here, it will not be visible again until New Year’s Eve 2028.
