Supermoon Lunar Eclipse 2015

Despite being surrounded by light polluting street lights, I managed to capture a few photos of the supermoon lunar eclipse. From the end of totality to the receding earth shadow on the lunar surface.

A supermoon occurs when a full moon or a new moon coincides with the closest approach the moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit. This makes the moon appear slightly larger in the sky.

The moon also turns red during a total lunar eclipse as it’s completely covered by the Earth’s shadow. This is because the Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light more than red, so it’s mostly red light from the Sun that passes through Earth’s atmosphere and onto the moon’s surface.

Viewing a lunar eclipse is a great reminder of our place in the solar system. But it must have been a scary sight for our ancient ancestors to see the moon suddenly turn blood red!

Photos were taken from Liverpool in the early hours of 28th September 2015, with a Panasonic Lumix G6 attached to a William Optics Megrez 72 Doublet APO refractor.