Sunset Moonlight
Credit & Copyright:
Markus Strassfeld
November's lunar eclipse
was one of the shortest in recent
years and also one of the brightest --
demonstrating that the Earth's shadow is not completely dark.
The eclipsed Moon remained easily visible during totality,
reflecting reddened light filtering on to its surface
from all the sunsets
and sunrises,
as seen from the
lunar perspective,
around the edges of a silhouetted Earth.
Hoping to view the
celestial shadow play from the
Earth's night side near Cologne, Germany, about
400,000
kilometers from the lunar surface,
amateur astronomer
Markus Strassfeld packed a digital camera
and telescope and drove about 10 kilometers outside the city
to escape the bright city lights.
Fortunately, the sky cleared about an hour before the
eclipse began and he was able to record this sharp image of
sunsets illuminating the totally eclipsed Moon.
Young ray crater Tycho,
about 85 kilometers across, stands out near
the Moon's brighter southern edge.