Pic(k) of the Week: Blood Moon

Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures,
now, as they fly through the air. ^*

It was a combination of full 'Flower' Moon, supermoon, 'Blood' Moon, and total lunar eclipse, all wrapped into one astronomical wow, as seen over Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 16 May 2022, at 12:43 am EDT.

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Blood Moon (aka total lunar eclipse)

A total lunar eclipse happens when the Moon travels through the Earth's umbra and blocks all direct sunlight from illuminating the Moon's surface. However, some sunlight still reaches the lunar surface indirectly, via the Earth's atmosphere, bathing the Moon in a reddish, yellow, or orange glow [thus colloquially called a 'Blood Moon'].

As the Sun's rays pass through the atmosphere, some colors in the light spectrum—those towards the violet spectrum—are filtered out by a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. This is the same mechanism that causes colorful sunrises and sunsets. Red wavelengths are least affected by this effect, so the light reaching the Moon's surface has a reddish hue, causing the fully eclipsed Moon to take on a red color.

— Time and Date.

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Full Flower (Super) Moon

"May’s full Flower Moon name should be no surprise; flowers spring forth across North America in abundance this month. The full Moon names used by The Old Farmer’s Almanac come from a number of places, including Native American, Colonial American, and European sources. 'Flower Moon' has been attributed to Algonquin peoples.

May’s full Moon is the first supermoon of the year. A supermoon is most commonly defined as any full Moon that occurs when the Moon is at at least 90% of perigee (the point in the Moon’s orbit where it is closest to Earth). In 2022, there will be four supermoons.

— Old Farmer's Almanac.

Here was the moon, two hours earlier (at 10:32 pm EDT, on 15 May), only partially eclipsed and yet un-'bloodied.'

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• * The quote above was the sign-on of television broadcaster Tom Snyder for his late night talk show, Tomorrow, which aired weeknights from 1973 through 1982.
• Compare the earlier shot of the start of the eclipse to the shot of full totality. As the moon became redder and eclipsed-er, I found it harder to pull sharp focus on a dark celestial object.


• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays, and occasionally —but not always (as is the case today)— with a good fermentable as the subject.
• Photo 21 of 52, for year 2022. See it at Flickr: here.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
• Total eclipse
  • Lens: Lumix G Vario 100-300/F4.0-5.6
  • Settings: 300 mm | 3.2 sec | ISO 200 | ƒ/5.6
• Start of eclipse
  • Lens: Lumix G Vario 100-300/F4.0-5.6
  • Settings: 280 mm | 1/80 sec | ISO 200 | ƒ/18


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