Supermoon Lunar Eclipse

What a night and what a beautiful eclipse!

I've seen a couple of total lunar eclipses before but this is the most beautiful one so far. I went 250 km east of Östersund where the weather forecast looked much better and I did get clear skies throughout the entire night.

Here are a couple of photos of the eclipse, I will probably update this post with more photos later on.

Total Lunar Eclipse

We're closing in on one of the astronomical highlights of this year. Early in the morning on the 28th of September we will be able to see a total lunar eclipse (Swedish summer time). Totality starts at 04:10 and ends at 05:28. The partial eclipse starts at 03:06 and ends at 06:28 so it will be a long night for all you eclipse chasers.

This years eclipse is a bit special since it occurs during a so called supermoon. A supermoon is when the full moon coincides with its closest approach to the Earth.

This is a collage of a total lunar eclipse I photographed on the 28th of October back in 2004. It shows the partial eclipse growing into a total lunar eclipse. This eclipse also occurred early in the morning here in Sweden, these photos was taken between 04:00 and 05:00.

So let us hope for clear skies on the morning of the 28th of September. What better way to start a week than with a total lunar eclipse :-)

Lunar Eclipse Service

Later today there will be a total lunar eclipse visible from the Americas, the Pacific Ocean, Australia, New Zealand and eastern parts of Asia. By the time the moon is visible here in central Europe, the eclipse will be over.

Yesterday I found the moon while it was being prepared for the upcoming eclipse.

Later this year, on the 28th of September, there will be another lunar eclipse that will be visible from eastern half of North America to western part of Europe.

Minimånförmörkelse

Ikväll inträffade en väldigt liten månförmörkelse. Endast 1,5% av månens diameter hamnade i jordens skugga vilket motsvarar 3 promille av månens totala yta. En månförmörkelse inträffar då jorden ligger mellan månen och solen och jordens skugga träffar månen. Maximum, då förmörkelsen var som störst, inträffade klockan 22:08 svensk sommartid. Tyvärr låg månen bakom molnen här i Östersund vid den tiden, men 25 minuter senare lättade det upp och jag kunde ta den här bilden. Som ni ser är månens övre del fortfarande mörkare än vad den brukar vara vid en fullmåne. Nästa miniförmörkelse äger rum först den 28 september 2038. Nästa totala månförmörkelse kan ses från Sverige den 28 september 2015.

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Tiny partial lunar eclipse

Here's a photo of the tiny partial lunar eclipse that occurred tonight. Only 1.5% of the moons diameter was in earth's shadow. The eclipse was at it greatest at 20:08 UTC, but then the moon was behind the clouds. This photo is taken 25 minutes later and you can still see that the upper part of the moon is darkened.