2018 Lunar Eclipses, compared

The image shows sequence of both total lunar eclipses of 2018 compared to each other. In both cases, identic equipment, setting and post-processing was applied to get the best comparsion possibilities. The white lines show ecliptic (with its sky equator orientation), small crosses mark the centers of Earth’s shadow (showed by thee circles around total phases). In this north hemisphere orientation the Moon always enters the shadow from right to left. Except the colors and darkness in the Earth’s shadow the most noticeable is angular size of the Moon and the shadow caused by perigee vs. apogee effect (January eclipse was close to periigee, July one to apogee), making angular difference about 13 percents between these both cases. Due to different distances of the Moon from Earth and also due to different distances of Sun and Earth during both eclipses, the shadow of July eclipse in the image is more than 24 percents angularly smaller than in January case. Using the stars as reference points for the aligment, I only didn’t consider lunar parallax in the sky, which would make a difference of Earth shadow in the sky about 2.5 perents smaller in lunar movement axis. That can be considered as negligible value in this infographics. Used Canon 6D, MTO 1100mm/f10.5, ISO 500, 15s exposures on Vixen GP-2 mount (total eclipse) and ISO 200, 1/60s exposures (partial phase). January eclipse was captured from Ko Samui Island, Thailand, the July one from Rhodes Island, Greece.