Colorful Lunar Eclipse
The 8 November 2022, a total lunar eclipse occurred over the Americas and Pacific. There I was allowed to observe this beautiful lunar eclipse from the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab. The deep red color of this lunar eclipse (lower left) is believed to be the remains of the ash from the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption. The extent of the Earth’s shadow can be seen. The “ozone fringe” in blue due to ozone absorption in the upper stratosphere of the Earth is seen to the right and left. Enjoy also the 85-minute totality in 19 seconds, as the following video is the result of continuous “timeplapsing” of the eclipse with Canon Ra, MTO 1000mm/f10, ISO 640 and 6s exposures from Vixen GP2 mount (from which the extracted phases of the totality were used for the introductory lunar eclipse “triplet”).
Let’s move to a photographic story now. If you take a time-lapse sequence of a lunar eclipse and put the images together to get the trails of stars and the Moon, you might be surprised by what comes as result. Exactly this–a lunar eclipse trail, here over the Nicolas U. Mayall Telescope of NOIRLab’s Kitt Peak National Observatory from its very beginning to the end, with central reddish totality. Just a few minutes before the partial eclipse ended, an observer from the telescope returned with his car down, creating a dramatic light show on the road. In the right upper corner, the Polaris star can be found nearby the northern celestial pole, while the stars on the left part belong to the majestic Orion constellation. The whole sequence took about 3,5 hours. The whole sequence took about 3,5 hours. Used Canon 6D, Samyang 12mm, f5.6, ISO 800, 379x30s.
Lunar Eclipse Trail
Enjoy also the view of the sky during the maximum of the total lunar eclipse on Nov. 8, 2022, over the dome hosts the 4-m Nicolas U. Mayall telescope of KPNO (NSF’s NOIRLab) as the eclipsed Moon shines with its majestic reddish color on right, just below the Pleiades cluster. The Milky Way, dotted by star-forming regions, arches over the telescope, while low over the horizon, prominent “ribs” of airglow can be seen. Truly a wild sky while the Moon was eclipsed! Technical details: Canon 6D, Sigma ART 35mm, f2.0, ISO 8000, a panorama of 10s single images (not tracked, from a durable tripod).
Wild Eclipse Sky
Eclipse and Milky Way arch over Mayall’s Telescope
And finally, enjoy the Virtual Tour version of this view:
