A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow known as the umbra. When this happens diffuse sunlight refracted by the Earth bathes the Moon in an eerie orange or reddish color making for a beautiful sight in the sky.

This total lunar eclipse was paraded in the media as having 3 things going for it. 1) This lunar eclipse happened on a “blue moon” or the second full moon in a single month. 2) This eclipse also occurred during a so-called “super moon”.  A “super moon,” a term coined recently, and one I don’t like to use, is when the moon is full or new at or very near perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit. So the Moon is slightly (fractionally) larger in the sky.

The term super moon in my opinion sets unrealistic expectations for the public. They hear the term and go outside to take a look and there is the “super moon” looking just like any other full moon they’ve ever seen. Yes, it is slightly closer to Earth but without a frame of reference no one notices. I think promoting astronomical events is a good thing don’t get me wrong but naming something like a full moon a “super moon” simply because the moon is at perigee is just misleading hype and nothing more.  Anyway, where was I?   Oh yes, and 3) All of these things were happening at the same time making this a “super blue moon total eclipse” or as astronomer’s like to call it, just another total lunar eclipse! :)

Now that I’m off my soapbox Here are some images I took of the total lunar eclipse of January 31, 2018 using a tripod mounted Nikon D60 DSLR with a Nikkor 50-200mm lens. I shot these images in “M” or manual mode mostly at f/5.6 and exposure times ranging from 1/500 of a second up to 5 seconds.

Click any of the images below to go to the gallery for a better.