The total lunar eclipse 2026 dazzles in incredible photos from around the world
The March 3 total lunar eclipse has been and gone, astounding skywatchers around the world with a panoramic show of orbital mechanics as the lunar disk plunged into Earth’s threshold shadow, reworking it right into a crimson-hued blood moon.
TO total lunar eclipse happens as Earth passes between the moon and the solar throughout a full moon section. No direct daylight can attain the lunar floor throughout totality, as the lunar disk passes by means of the deepest a part of our planet’s shadow, often called its umbra. Instead, the moon is doused in daylight that has been filtered by Earth’s atmosphere — which is adept at scattering blue gentle whereas permitting longer redder wavelengths to cross comparatively unhindered — inflicting it to show a rusty, blood pink coloration.
Read on to see a number of mesmerizing photos of the March 3 blood moon and remember to take a look at our total lunar eclipse reside weblog in the event you’re on the lookout for a recap of yesterday’s spectacular occasion.
Spectacular photos of the total lunar eclipse 2026
Our first photograph of the eclipsed moon was captured by Phil Walter because it held on the skies over Auckland, New Zealand, as Earth’s shadow started its tentative creep over the western fringe of the lunar disk throughout the partial section. Remember: Images of the moon captured from the southern hemisphere seem “upside down” in comparison with what northern hemisphere viewers are used to seeing, whereas pictures taken close to the equator usually tend to present the moon resting on its facet.
Ted Aljibe took another striking image of the lunar disk as it glowed orange over the city of Manila in the Philippines. Its striking color here isn’t a result of the eclipse, but rather the lunar disk’s proximity to the horizon in the period directly following moonrise, when its reflected sunlight has to make a prolonged journey through Earth’s atmosphere, which scatters blue light.
That same moon was spotted just a few minutes later from Beijing, China, by photographer Fred Lee. The lunar sea Mare Crisium (the Sea of Crisis) is just visible as a dark circular feature at the top of the sunlit lunar disk, where lava flooded a network of impact craters over a billion years ago, before hardening into a vast basaltic plain.
Lee also snapped a wide-angle shot of the moon as direct sunlight illuminated a thin crescent of its outer disk, mere minutes before the onset of totality, as the Beijing skyline stretched out below, pouring light into the night sky. Sunlight refracted through Earth’s atmosphere can already be seen softly illuminating the shadowed part of the lunar disk, making lunar maria visible to the naked eye.
The moon took on a foreboding crimson hue as it slipped into the deepest part of Earth’s threshold shadow. Tayfun Coskun captured the lunar disk soon after the period of totality began, documenting the deep orange-red hue of its surface. A patch of bluish light can also be spotted on the lower edge of the lunar disk. This fleeting phenomenon, sometimes known as the “turquoise band,” occurs when red light is scattered by the ozone layer in Earth’s upper atmosphere, which allows the blue wavelengths of light through to bend onto the lunar surface, according to Time and Date.
Ezra Acayan snapped a glorious photo of the blood moon as it glowed through a gap in the clouds over the metropolis of Santa Rosa in the Philippines, as faint stars fought for consideration shut by.
Acayan combined several images into a stunning composite view, revealing the sweeping progress of Earth’s shadow in impressive detail during the partial and total phases of the blood moon eclipse.
Astrophotographer Keith Odendahl took a beautifully detailed image of the fully-eclipsed moon as it glowed in the sky over the city of Price in Utah. Bright streaks known as ejecta rays can be seen streaking away from young impact craters in Odendahl’s photo, whose existence testifies to the incredible force unleashed in their creation.
Trần Hữu Thịnh captured another beautiful composite view of the total and waning partial phases of the blood moon eclipse as they unfolded over Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on March 3, soon after sunset for that part of the world.
Tang Chhin, meanwhile, took a photo of the waning partial phase of the eclipse, as Earth’s curved shadow slipped from the lunar disk, revealing the ancient lava plains of Mare Imbrium, Procellarum, Nubium and Humorum. The 51-mile (82-kilometer) expansion of the Tycho impact crater can also be seen, dominating the brighter right side of the lunar portrait.
Finally, Lauren DeCicca captured this gorgeous image of the uneclipsed lunar disk from Chiang Mai, Thailand on March 3.
With the March blood moon in the rearview mirror, you’ll have to wait until New Year’s Eve 2028 for the next total lunar eclipse. Fortunately, there’s nonetheless lots extra eclipse motion to return this 12 months, together with a spectacular total solar eclipse on Aug. 12which is able to see the path of totality fall throughout Greenland, Iceland and Spain as the lunar disk fully blocks out the face of our guardian star.
Hoping to catch a glimpse of the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse? Then you are going to want to choose up a pair of quality eclipse glasses to protect your eyesequivalent to the mannequin listed above, or in order for you a better look, you may go for a set of specialized sunoculars.
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