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Full moon eclipse and Mars

Nima Asadzadeh wrote: “Here’s a photo sequence of the total lunar eclipse of July 28, 2018 taken from Nandal, northern area of Mount Damavand, Iran. This sequence includes 54 frames which layered to show partial phases of totality. Camera not moved through the entire sequence.” The movement, of course, is from Earth’s rotation. The object below the eclipsed moon is Mars.
Prabhakaran A wrote from Trichy, India: “The full moon on the night of July 27-28, 2018, presented the longest and darkest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century. Totality spanned 1 hour 42 minutes and 57 seconds. The most distant and smallest full moon of the year passed through the center of the Earth’s dark umbral shadow which reached its maximum length and width for the year. This beautiful eclipse happened on the same night of Mars opposition.”
The July 27, 2018, eclipsed moon rises over the observatories of Instituto Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife. Roberto Porto acquired 200 images to make this “moon trail” composite.
Nurul Fathin wrote, “An optical effect called the ‘Japanese Lantern.’ This image was taken during the eclipse of July 28, 2018, at about 3:24 a.m. at the Telok Kemang Observatory in Port Dickson, Malaysia.”

Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse & Mars from Miska Saarikko on Vimeo.

Lunar eclipse and Mars from Italy. Photo via Alessandra Cailotto.
Tracey Slaven captured the moon and Mars from Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Canon 600D 600 Tamron lens.
Lunar eclipse over Mitre Rock near Natimuk, Australia, on July 28, 2018, by Lynton Brown.
Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe, wrote: “Conditions were very good for observing the eclipse and yielded many of the usual Blood Moon photographs. However, when photographing the approaching umbra just before it had completely encroached on the moon, a beautiful vivid blue ozone fringe which lasted for just a few minutes appeared. The attached animation, which consists of 21 still photographs taken between 9:13 and 9:22 p.m. local time using highlight instead of shadow detail exposures, presents a rare and unusual view of this lunar eclipse phenomenon which usually just imparts a pale bluish tinge to the last directly illuminated portion of the moon (as is shown in the conventional picture taken at about the same time).” Read more about the ozone fringe seen during lunar eclipses.
Henrique Feliciano Silva in Lisbon, Portugal, caught a commercial airplane crossing the moon during the July 27 eclipse. Note that Mars – below the eclipsed moon – is shining more brightly than the moon.
Full moon eclipse with Mars nearby, a view from the Rheinwiesen in Düsseldorf, Germany, from Radhika Mohan.
Different moments of total lunar eclipse. July 27, 2018, from Ploiesti, Romania © Steliana Cristina Voicu.
Total lunar eclipse as seen from Jaipur, India, from Priyanka Chobey.
As promised, the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome caught the red eclipsed moon near red Mars (in about the 5 o’clock position with respect to the moon). Click here for a playback of the live broadcast.
July 27, 2018, total eclipse of the moon over the Sacra di San Michele, Piemonte, Italy, from Gabriella Milani.
Total lunar eclipse and Mole Antonelliana (Turin, Italy) from Stefano De Rosa.
Tom Thrasher wrote: “Shot from my level 4 floor balcony which is looking west out over the Indian Ocean ‘towards South Africa,’ as we say. Had to be very patient for clouds to pass over, but then sky opened up very clear. I cropped out Mars as it was so bright in photo and therefore appear blurred. Fantastic early morning experience. I read EarthSky every day and look up info using Star Walk 2 or Solar Walk 2.” That’s a great way to use EarthSky, Tom! We also hear good things about the online planetarium software Stellarium.
Stages of the lunar eclipse from Abhishek Bethanabotla in Hyderabad, India.
Stages of the lunar eclipse from Matthew Chin in Hong Kong. Looks like Matthew had some thin clouds …
Helio C. Vital in Saquarema, Brazil, saw the eclipse at moonrise, when the moon was still low in the sky. He wrote: “The moon was very low during totality (9 degrees above the horizon only at U3)! I first spotted the moon some 25 minutes after its rise as I had predicted. Such delay was due to the fact it was thousand of times dimmer than the usual full moon when it crossed the horizon. The moon was many times darker than Mars when I first glanced it, only 5 degrees above the horizon at 17:48 (UTC-3h). It was a therefore a dark eclipse not due to recent major volcanic eruptions, but due to the fact the moon crossed the center of Earth`s shadow where the shadow is very dark. What a nice show the totally eclipsed moon and Mars in opposition (only 7 degrees apart) put on over Saquarema! Nikon CoolPix P900 camera using its Moon Mode.”

Bottom line: Photos of the total lunar eclipse of July 27, 2018 – longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century – from the EarthSky community. During this eclipse, the planet Mars was near the moon and brighter than it had been since 2003.

Posted 
July 28, 2018
 in 
Astronomy Essentials

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