Red Moon Eclipse a Sight to See!

It was well worth going outside in the cold late Sunday night to get a glimpse of a rare celestial event. This was the so-called "Super Blood Wolf Moon" lunar eclipse.

I took this photo from my backyard area at around 11:45 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019

"During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the light from the sun, giving the moon's surface a red glow, which many refer to as a red moon," according to Fortune.com.



The wolf moon name goes back to Native American Indians and colonial Americans called the January full moon a Wolf Moon because wolves would howl due to be hungry during the cold winter and perhaps too at their surprise at seeing such a large moon due to its closeness to Earth, according to the Farmer's Almanac.

Eclipse choreography shown via online sources 

The above image shows the positions of the sun, Earth and moon during this lunar eclipse. Notice that the moon is behind the earth. During a solar eclipse, the moon would be between the sun and Earth.

I wanted to capture and show the process of full moon to fully eclipsed moon

I took this photograph from my front yard Sunday at around 8 p.m. Pretty good clarity considering the moon is more than 200,000 miles from Earth!  What a gorgeous full moon it was.

The eclipse starts- right on schedule! 

The eclipse would begin at 10:34 p.m. It is amazing how precisely such things can be predicted today! And it was that. I took this photo at around 10:45.

More of the moon is in the Earth's shadow

This photo (above) was taken about 30 minutes later.

Close to full eclipse at this point 

Totality, the complete eclipse phase, was almost here. I took this photo just before 11:41 p.m. when totality was predicted.

"Super Blood Wolf Moon"

Totality- above image. I took this picture at around 11:45. It would last an hour. The red color is due to the way the Earth's shadow is cast on the moon. Check out this link for the scientific explanation.

This was a very cool and interesting thing to witness first hand and to photograph as well. It was not as easy shoot as the moon was straight up in the sky. My tripod could not be adjusted enough to shoot straight up. My wife was out with me and she was on the ground on her back. So that's what I did too. Not very comfortable but I was able to hold my tripod on my chest and steady the camera so decent photos could be made.

This was my second eclipse in two years. In August 2017 there was a solar eclipse that would be one for the ages. Check out my photos and blog post about this other celestial sensation.