On November 8, 2022 a total lunar eclipse – also known as a ‘blood moon' – was visible to the whole of North America, the Pacific, and the Asia Pacific. The spectacular event had photographers and astrophotographers excited, and totality (when the moon enters the darkest part of Earth's shadow and turns a deep blood-red hue) occurred at the same global time of 10:16 Universal Time.
The event was seen in the early hours of November 8 from North America, and in the Asia Pacific it was glimpsed just after sunset. For all locations, the moon turned dark red while situated very close to the Milky Way.
It was a spectacular sight to behold if you were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, but if you did miss the spectacle, you can watch the whole thing back (opens in new tab) on the YouTube channel of the Virtual Telescope Project (opens in new tab) (video below) – plus see some of the stunning images taken.
The Virtual Telescope Project covered the whole blood moon event and the live video event is over 3 and a half hours long. Of course, you don't have to watch the whole video, but if you're interested in seeing images of the blood moon from all over the world and finding out more about how the lunar eclipse happened, the video is well worth a watch – just scroll through the best bits!
NASA also produced (opens in new tab) this excellent video of the Total Lunar Eclipse in November 2022 (credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio). "The Moon moves right to left, passing through the penumbra and umbra, leaving in its wake an eclipse diagram with the times at various stages of the eclipse."
Of course, we've also got plenty of astrophotography tips (opens in new tab), including how to photograph the moon (opens in new tab) and how to photograph a blood moon (opens in new tab).
