Longest Lunar Eclipse in over 600 years

Longest Lunar Eclipse in over 600 years

A once in a lifetime event - a 97% Lunar Eclipse that took almost 4 hours from begiining to end.  Scientist say it last happened over 600 years ago and won't happen again for another 600 years so unless you eat a lot of longevity noodles, you had 1 chance to see it.  

"On the morning of Friday, November 19, the full Beaver Moon will take place in a 97%-total lunar eclipse, according to NASA, meaning that nearly all of the moon’s surface will be shrouded in the Earth’s shadow. November 2021’s eclipse will be about three and a half hours long, stretching from 2:18 to 5:47 a.m. EST. The Beaver Moon eclipse will peak at 4:02 a.m. EST, NASA reports, and will be visible across North America."  From local news report.

Where I live is Central Time in the USA so for me the schedule was:   1:18 am to 4:47 am with a peak at 3:02 am.

However the elcipse did not appear to follow the schedule.  At 1:07 am I took my first photo with my plan being to take one every 5 minutes from the start to the finish (plus a few in between along the way).  I used my Nikon D800 camera and the longest lens I have - a 400mm from Tokina.  Maybe one day I can buy a 600MM lens.

Anyway as the night began,

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this was the full moon at about 7:45 pmon Thursday, November 18.  I wanted a reference shot.

 

At 1:07 am on November 19, 5 minutes before the eclipse was supposed to start, I took this photo:

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it appears the eclipse jumped the gun and got the ball rolling early.

5 minutes later

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not a lot of difference but it confirms the eclipse seems to have started before the 1:18 am forecasted time.

and at 3:02 am which was supposed to be the peak (and it appeared to be correct) this is how the moon looked through my camera

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a "blood" moon eclipsed at 97%.  It almost looks like an eyeball doesn't it?

From there the eclipse followed a reverse process as less and less of the moon was covered by the Earth's shadow.  I have all stages photographed but haven't edited any except one at 4:13 am:

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At the forecasted end time of 4:47 am - 3 and a half hours after it was supposed to have begun - this was the moon:

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To my eyes, it appears the moon still has some of Earth's shadow.  I continued to take photos until 5 am central time.

So there is the longest lunar eclipse in a photo nutshell.

Was any of it visible where you live?

 

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Comments

  • wow!!

  •      Thanks a lot for sharing us this kind of information. Honestly, your topics are a way of great knowledge. Any way my friend, lunar eclipse is very………very rarely to be happened where I live. God bless you.

    • Sewar  They probably happen there but you are probably sleeping :) or it was a cloudy day.  

      I have seen them in the West and in the East.  The last time I photographed one (before this one) I was in Hong Kong.  I missed one while in Shenzhen in 2014 because of clouds.  The eclipse happened but we couldn't see it.   

    •       Thanks my friend for your nice comment. Actually, yes I live in a very cloudy city. Unfortunately its atmosphere like my timber. It is unsteady. God bless you.

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