March, 14th : the long awaited Total Eclipse of the Moon...

Every lunar eclipse is visible from half of the world simultaneously, so it would be insane to miss it if you are on the right side of the planet, especially when we haven't had such an eclipse in over two years. And it is no excuse if it happens in the middle of the night, as it was the case for Chile...

The Moon fits entirely within the radius of the Earth shadow that covers it, so we can have totality even if the path of the lunar disk misses completely the center of the shadow : in such a circumstance we get a short total eclipse, lasting merely 1 hour. And this is exactly what happened on the morning of past March 14th.

And we've been there...

On the above picture, near the maximum of the eclipse (4am local time), we can appreciate a brighter portion of the limb at the lower right, corresponding to the area closer to the interior edge of the Earth shadow...

Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - March 14, 2025
Canon 60D camera at prime focus of Celestron 127mm f/11 Maksutov, from Vicuña, Chile