Wolf Super Moon Full Lunar Eclipse - January 20-21, 2019
A "Super" Moon is one which is at its closest position to Earth due to the Moon's elliptical orbit.
Images taken in Jacksonville, Florida.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

I scouted the moon's location before the start of the eclipse and shot this image at 7:56 p.m.
[A close view of a grey and white image of the full moon. The color changes across the moon's surface correspond to mountains and valleys on the moon's surface.]

I did another scouting mission (wearing more clothes this time) and shot this image of the Orion constellation (blue lines added to show the arms, legs, and sword hanging from the belt) and some other stars at 10:02 p.m. The four stars at the lower portion of the image are part of the Canis Major constellation. The two on the left are part of the Canis Minor constellation. The full moon was to the left of this image. The trees were lit from the building lights.
[.]

The partial eclipse started at 10:34 p.m. and I shot this image at 10:35 p.m.
[A grey and white image of the full moon (slightly out of focus) which has a black shadow covering the bottom lip of the sphere and a dark greying which seems to extend about a quarter fof the way up the sphere although the mountains and valleys are still visible through the shadow.]

11:06 p.m. (The camera added the glowing around the Moon; the Moon was not glowing.)
[The shadow has extended approximately one third of the way up the sphere. The part in the shadow has shades of light and dark brown (canyons and valleys) while the top is a total blazing white that is glowing beyond the edges of the moon.]

11:11 p.m.
[The shadow now covers nearly two thirds the sphere. The top third is shades of white and gray while the bottom shadow part is all black and blends into the night sky.]

11:24 p.m. (The camera added the glowing around the moon; the moon was not glowing.)
[The shadow still seems to cover two-thirds of the way up the sphere, but it is shades of brown-orange and the edges of the sphere are completely visible against the black sky. The top is blazing white that is glowing beyond the edges of the Moon.]

The full eclipse started at 11:41 p.m. I shot this image at 11:45 p.m. Because of where the Moon passed through the Earth's shadow (at an upper edge), there was still some light to make part of the sphere appear lighter in color.
[The moon is shades of red and brown with the upper left edge being more of a pinkish white color. The sky around the Moon is completely black.]

The Moon was a red orb in the sky at 11:56 p.m. This image is representative of a view of the sky using only one's eyes. (Star names are below the stars.)
[This is the only Moon image on this page which is not a close view. This view of the sky has the Moon located in the lower left. Five tiny white dots and the Moon are all labeled. The stars Castor and Pollux are in the upper left. A star from the Taurus constellation is in the upper right. Gomeisa and Procyon are in the lower right.]

11:59 p.m.
[The upper edge which was pinkish white in the prior image is now more of a blue pink color. The rest of the orb is a consistant red orange color with brown spots where the canyons and valleys are located.]

Midpoint of the eclipse was 12:12 a.m., but I took my last image six minutes before the mid-point at 12:06 a.m.
[The amount of blue pink color in the upper left edge has lessened and more of the orb is red-orange with brown spots. This image is slightly less focused than the prior image.]

By this time I was very cold and tired and decided to call it a night. I watched more of the eclipse on the computer from a livestream of a telescope in California while I thawed. Then I went to bed.

Return to top of page.

Return to sky photos index.