Explanation:
A big, bright, beautiful Full Moon
slid
into planet Earth's shadow early Tuesday morning.
Remarkably,
the total lunar eclipse
coincided with the
date of the December Solstice.
During the eclipse,
the best viewing in North America
found the coppery lunar disc high in a cold winter sky,
the Moon reddened by light filtering into the Earth's
dark central shadow or umbra.
The light comes from all the sunsets and sunrises, seen
from a lunar perspective around
the edges of a silhouetted Earth.
Passing closer to the center of the umbra, the Moon's southern
hemisphere (left) appears darker in this eclipse image, recorded
from Deerlick Astronomy
Village, Georgia, USA.
The picture is a digital composite, a separate longer exposure added to
an eclipse frame to capture the surrounding star field.
Poll:
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