Lunar Eclipses Collection

Someone collects stamps, another one butterflies… Here is my little collection of last four lunar eclipses. Same equipment, same exposures, same processing settings. But four different places, four amazing stories and adventures. Will definitely not forget. And there is even more…

Years 2018 and 2019 offered four different lunar eclipses, which could be considered as a tetrad if the latest one was total. However, even if the tetrad was not fullfilled this time, all four eclipses have something iteresting together: They all occured close to perigee/apogee dates of the full Moon phases. While January ones were the perigee lunar eclipses, the July ones were the opposite. For the January 31st, 2018, I traveled in Thailand, specifically on beautiful Ko Samui Island. The supermoon eclipse was perfectly visible over Lamai Beach during traditional “full moon party“. The next one, apogee lunar eclipse on July 27th, 2018, was interesting even more: Duration of the totality was 103 minutes, which made it as the century’s longest lunar eclipse. And the same day, the planet Mars was in its greatest opposition in last 15 years. I observed this wonderful celestial show with my friends from Rhodes Island, Greece. Third eclipse in row, on January 21st, 2019, was total and perigee again. With best of luck I managed something I had never dreamt about: Captured a meteoroid hits the Moon during the eclipse. This beautiful (and very colorful) one I watched from desert of Boa Vista Island (Cape Verde).

And finally the latest eclipse, partial one on July 16th, 2019, occured in miraculously clear skies while I was staying in the Czech Republic (originally I meant to be in Croatia) after the total solar eclipse expedition in Chile. Only partial eclipse, not so close to apogee date of the full Moon (about 4 days), so what could be so interesting? Well, even this one has something to mention: I occured on 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 launch in 1969, when one of the greatest adventure of the mankind has peaked.

To me, the whole mosaic has even deeper meaning. All four eclipses were captured with MTO 1100mm/f10.5 telephoto lens, which was was given to me from inheritance of my friend Václav Knoll, one of the biggest enthusiasits for eclipse eclipses I’ve ever met. Unfortunately, he passed away 7 years ago due to brain tumor. I try to continue in his legacy…