Thursday, April 17, 2014

APOD 4.4



If you were in the western hemisphere and if you were up at 3 AM on April 15th, then you would have possibly seen a total lunar eclipse, the first one of the year! This picture was taken in the Caribbean island of Barbados the Moon was in Earth's shadow for a whole hour. You can see that underneath the Moon is the star Spica which is in the constellation Virgo and the bright star to the right would be the planet Mars which was nearing opposition which means that Mars will be the brightest this year.

The reason why the Moon is reddish during a total lunar eclipse is because this is when the Sun, Earth and the Moon are in opposition. With the Sun directly behind Earth, the sunlight is still scattered due to Earth's atmosphere and gives it a red hue. This red light is then reflected on the Moon which makes the Moon reddish-orangeish. Here is a picture of what I am trying to explain:


This picture would be a better representation of the Moon during the eclipse:


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