A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Uruguay
Video Credit & Copyright:
Mauricio Salazar
If the full Moon suddenly faded, what would you see?
The answer was recorded in a dramatic time lapse video
taken during the total lunar
eclipse last week from
Uruguay.
During a
total lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the
Moon and the
Sun,
causing the Moon to fade dramatically.
The Moon never gets completely dark,
though, since the Earth's atmosphere
refracts some light.
As the featured video begins, the scene may appear to be daytime and sunlit, but actually it is nighttime and lit by the glow of the full Moon.
As the
Moon
becomes eclipsed and fades, background stars become
visible.
Most spectacularly, the
sky surrounding the eclipsed moon
suddenly appears to be
full of stars
and highlighted by the busy plane of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
Nearly two hours after the eclipse started,
the Moon emerged from the Earth's shadow and its bright full
glare again dominated the sky.