Last night, the 27th of July, some of us were fortunate to witness the longest moon eclipse of the century that lasted for 1 hour and 43 minutes. We knew that the eclipse was visible from the Middle East and we weren’t about to miss this unique chance. Deep in the desert of Qatar, up on the dunes where light pollution was as lowest as it could be, geared up with cameras and tripods we set up our small ‘photography camp’ eager to take the perfect shot of the ‘blood moon’.
As we were gazing at the sky Earth’s natural satellite turned an unusual shade of red. But do you know why a totally eclipsed Moon is called a blood moon?
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind Earth and into its shadow. For that to happen the Sun, Earth and Moon must be aligned, with the planet in between. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon and the only light reflected from the lunar surface is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. This makes the Moon look reddish and it’s for the same reason that a sunset or a sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light.
One of my favorite styles of shooting is long exposure night photography so I thought I would share with you some of the pictures I took last night of the eclipse. Enjoy!
Over the following days, Mars will be at its brightest and closest point to Earth in 15 years – visible as a “bright red star” where skies are clear.
Thank you for reading! Please share, follow and let me know if you liked my pictures. See you next time!
Fktlicious 