Night Sky Photography -- 11-19-2021 -- Partial Lunar Eclipse, The Pleiades, & Bright Constellation Stars

Good evening fellow stargazers!

I have a really good set of photos for y'all to enjoy tonight, the first couple of which involves the Partial Lunar Eclipse of the November Full Beaver Moon. Other names for November’s full moon include: the Digging Moon, the Whitefish Moon, and the Frost Moon.

Lunar eclipses can only occur during full moons when the moon is at its brightest.

What made this Partial Lunar Eclipse special is that it was the longest lunar eclipse since the year 1440 AD, and will be the longest Lunar Eclipse until 2669 AD -- needless to say I was thankful to God for clear skies and the chance to capture it on camera this time around.

At 1:02 AM our beautiful Luna entered the penumbra -- the outer part of the Earth's shadow -- and the Moon begins to dim very subtly over the next couple of hours. Two hours later at around 2:18 AM, the Moon begins to enter Earth’s umbra -- the darkest part of the planet's shadow -- and the partial eclipse begins. At this point, it looks to the naked eye like a huge bite is being taken out of the Moon.

Graphic showing a Lunar Eclipse in relation to the Earth's shadow effect.
Image courtesy of Google.

The part of the Moon inside the umbra appears very dark red. Because the Earth has an atmosphere, its shadow is not black. This is the same phenomenon that causes early morning sunrises and evening sunsets to glow a dull red color. That’s why lunar eclipses are sometimes called blood moons.

The peak of the Eclipse occurred at exactly 4:02 AM when about 97% of the Moon's surface was darkened red, leaving only the slightly silvery-white curve. As you can see in my photo, the white of the lunar surface in the far left with Tycho Crater clearly visible inside the lighter part of the umbra.

Ironically, what actually made this eclipse so long was the fact it was a partial one, because the Moon had to travel farther through the Earth's shadow as opposed to a full eclipse when the Moon would move directly through the penumbra and umbra. Also because the moon was currently at apogee (the farthest point in its orbit from Earth) it was also moving at its slowest speed as it passed through the Earth's shadow, taking over 100 minutes from the time of first umbra contact to the time of greatest eclipse and then till exiting the umbra.

Overall, the Partial Lunar Eclipse began at 1:02 AM EST and ended at 7:04 AM EST, approximately 6 hours and 2 minutes from entering to existing the Earth's shadow.

However, in case you feel bummed out for missing this one, not to worry. Next year there will be two Lunar Eclipses! The first one taking place on Monday, May 16th and the other on Tuesday, November 8th.

Because of the Partial Lunar Eclipse there was little moonlight to block out some of the closest stars, including the nearby Pleiades Star Cluster and some of the brighter stars of the Constellations Taurus The Bull and Orion The Hunter. In fact nearly all of the stars of both constellations were clearly visible.

Here, I highlighted the positions of the stars and the lines of the constellations, as well as the three bight stars: Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse that make up the Winter Triangle asterism.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos for this evening. Please let me know in the comments below and I will see y'all next time. Till then keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!