Starship Asterisk*

Total Lunar Eclipse over Waterton Lake

Explanation: Recorded in 2014 April, this total lunar eclipse sequence looks south down icy Waterton Lake from the Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, planet Earth. The most distant horizon includes peaks in Glacier National Park, USA. An exposure every 10 minutes captured the Moon's position and eclipse phase, as it arced, left to right, above the rugged skyline and Waterton town lights. In fact, the sequence effectively measures the roughly 80 minute duration of the total phase of the eclipse. Around 270 BC, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus also measured the duration of lunar eclipses - though probably without the benefit of digital clocks and cameras. Still, using geometry, he devised a simple and impressively accurate way to calculate the Moon's distance, in terms of the radius of planet Earth, from the eclipse duration. This modern eclipse sequence also tracks the successive positions of Mars, above and right of the Moon, bright star Spica next to the reddened lunar disk, and Saturn to the left and below.

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"2015 September 28" Thanks APOD for using this date format. Even better, in my opinion, would be "2015 September 28 Monday," or perhaps "2015 Sep 28 Mon" .

Interesting image of 2014

Is my imagination running wild again or is the surface of the lake crystalizing, in this sequence? Maybe it's photographic artifact from the timing?

Awesome. Spica is so close to the Moon, it even demonstrates the Moon's retrograde motion in the course of the total eclipse. (Of course, so does Earth's shadow.)

Nice series.

We lucked out and had clear sky last night. From our location in the mountains, the moon was already in totality when we rotated into view.

Tszabeau wrote:Is my imagination running wild again or is the surface of the lake crystalizing, in this sequence? Maybe it's photographic artifact from the timing?

At that time of year (April) there is still ice on that lake.