                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2021 May 28

                       Total Lunar Eclipse from Sydney
       Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Ward (Barden Ridge Observatory)

   Explanation: The reddened shadow of planet Earth plays across the lunar
   disk in this telescopic image taken on May 26 near Sydney, New South
   Wales, Australia. On that crisp, clear autumn night a Perigee Full Moon
   slid through the northern edge of the shadow's dark central umbra.
   Short for a lunar eclipse, its total phase lasted only about 14
   minutes. The Earth's shadow was not completely dark though. Instead it
   was suffused with a faint red light from all the planet's sunsets and
   sunrises seen from the perspective of an eclipsed Moon, the reddened
   sunlight scattered by Earth's atmosphere. The HDR composite of 6
   exposures also shows the wide range of brightness variations within
   Earth's umbral shadow against a faint background of stars.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

