The moon turned a reddish hue during the total lunar eclipse that morning in one of the major astronomical events of the year.
What a heavenly show. Depending on your time zone, you either got up early, got up late, or pulled an all-niter last night in hopes of catching today’s total lunar eclipse. This event favored the Pacific region, with western North American observers capturing the solar eclipse at sunrise / moonset and Australia, New Zealand, and East Asia observing totality at moonrise / moonset.
This was a very southern solar eclipse as captured in this wide-field image of totality across from the Milky Way from New Zealand courtesy of the Ian Griffin / Otago Museum.
Unfortunately for many clouds – always the bane of any observer when the eclipse is low on the horizon – the prospect of the early sub-phases east of the Mississippi (including here in downtown Norfolk, Virginia) have been devastated. Further west, people fared much better. However, this solar eclipse on the horizon offered photographers worldwide the unique opportunity to achieve the entirety in combination with terrestrial objects in the foreground, which was always a plus.
A setting that partially obscures the moon. Credit and Copyright: Mark Brown @SSA_Mark
Stories of totality
As expected, this was a very bright solar eclipse with a short total, only 14 minutes and 30 seconds long. This was actually the second shortest total of the 21st century, only surpassed by the solar eclipse in April 2015. The total moon total was only 4 minutes and 42 seconds. This is not far from the shortest total of the millennium, which appeared on September 11, 2155 AD in the next century. Today’s solar eclipse was also the last to contain the entirety of the Lunar Saros series 121.The Saros ends with an imperceptible lunar eclipse on March 18, 2508 AD
… And of course, today’s total lunar eclipse heralds the first of two eclipse seasons for 2021, and the only one is the total lunar eclipse for 2021. This particular season is ended by the annular solar eclipse that crosses northeast North America on the morning of June 10th , only two weeks from today. The second solar eclipse season for 2021 rounds off the year, starting with a deep partial lunar eclipse in favor of America in Northern Europe and the Pacific on November 19 and ending with the only total solar eclipse of the year on December 4, a remote event that crosses Antarctica.
Totality versus high clouds. Photo credit and copyright: David Hash @turndownformars
Was it all for you? Did you happen to notice the extra large perigee moon during the solar eclipse? It is worth noting that the deep partial lunar eclipse occurs on November 19th in the vicinity of the opposite of the “supermoon”, the apogee minimoon. Perhaps a photographic comparison is appropriate?
The curve of the Earth’s shadow during the solar eclipse on Wednesday morning. Picture credits and copyright: Tom Ruen @Tom_Ruen.
Has anyone seen the Selenium Elion? As far as I can tell, no one has overcome the Selenelion challenge of reaching a brief wholeness after sunrise. This is certainly a difficult and fleeting phenomenon to grasp. Of course, there are more blurry, bokeh-laden photos of the US Navy that supposedly are UFOs on the internet than good shots of the Selenium Elion. The next total lunar eclipse with one more attempt to cross a selenel off your observing life list will take place on May 16, 2022 and will favor America.
A reddish red moon, during totality early Wednesday morning. Photo credit: David Hash @turndownformars
Great job for all of the photographers who have persevered, successfully dodged clouds and brought the total lunar eclipse to the rest of us around the world.
A multicolored ensemble that can be seen during the total lunar eclipse of this AM. Photo credit and copyright: Doug Beattie doug0013
Mission statement: totality! Photo credits and copyright: Marianne Denton @Astro_Limno
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