Colors in the Round Shadow
For the deep lunar eclipse on 28 August, 2026, I traveled with my friend Josef Kujal more than 1900 km (about 1180 miles) from the Czech Republic to the region of Mount Ursuya in France, where we witnessed a truly beautiful view of the phenomenon at dawn. The attached image shows the maximum phase at 4:12 UTC and the side phases +/- 36 minutes, composed precisely to the position in the shadow, so it reveals its rounded shape. The same shape Fernão de Magalhães (Ferdinand Magellan) reportedly pointed out to his sailors that during a lunar eclipse, the Earth always casts a round shadow on the Moon and thus the sail around the world cannot end on the edge of our planet. In the shadow, of course, there is not complete darkness, as the faint sunlight reaches the Moon through the Earth’s atmosphere. Also, with the blue tint caused by the ozone layer, which absorbs the red part. The ending phase (right) was very low over the horizon, so you can see very bad seeing in the shape of the Moon’s edge.
Used Nikon Z6III, 1000mm/f10 + 1,4x teleconverter, ISO 400, HDR exposures (each eclipse phase of nine exposures from 1/30s to 8s), Vixen GP-2 mount. Co-Author: Josef Kujal.
