Explanation:
On June 15, the
totally eclipsed Moon was very dark,
with the Moon itself positioned on the sky toward the center
of our Milky Way Galaxy.
This simple panorama captures totality
from northern Iran in 8 consecutive exposures
each 40 seconds long.
In the evocative scene,
the dark of the eclipsed Moon
competes with the Milky Way's faint glow.
The tantalizing
red lunar disk lies just above
the bowl of the dark
Pipe Nebula, to the right of the glowing
Lagoon and Trifid nebulae
and the central Milky Way dust clouds.
At the far right,
the wide field is anchored by yellow Antares and
the colorful clouds of Rho Ophiuchi.
To identify other sights of the central Milky Way just slide your
cursor over the image.
The total phase of this
first lunar eclipse of 2011 lasted an
impressive 100 minutes.
Parts of the eclipse were
visible
from most of planet Earth, with
notable exceptions of North and Central America.
