NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Eclipsed Moon and Stars

This dramatic image [ http://panther-obse…Mofi_03032007_cass.h tm ] features a dark red Moon during a total lunar eclipse -- celestial shadow play [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] enjoyed by many denizens of planet Earth [ http://spaceweather…] last Saturday. Recorded near Wildon, Austria, the picture is a composite of two exposures; a relatively short exposure to feature the lunar surface and a longer exposure to capture background stars in the constellation Leo [ http://www.seds.org…]. Completely immersed in Earth's cone-shaped shadow during the total eclipse [ http://www.inconsta…] phase, the lunar surface is still illuminated by sunlight, reddened and [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] refracted into the dark shadow region by a dusty atmosphere. As a result, familiar [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] details of the Moon's nearside are easy to pick out, including the smooth lunar mare and the large ray crater Tycho [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. In this telescopic view, the background stars are faint and most would be invisible to the naked eye.

Johannes Schedler (Panther Observatory [ http://panther-obse…])

Austria

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Washington, D.C.

Earth

Moon

Crater

Leo

moon

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap070308