On the night of July 27, millions of people looked up to the sky to witness one of the most anticipated astronomical events of the year: a lunar eclipse lasting 102 minutes, which made it the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century. .
Lunar eclipses occur when our satellite passes through the Earth’s shadow. This does not happen every month, because the Moon’s orbit is tilted relative to that of the Earth-Sun.
We were able to see it live from Namibia thanks to the sky-live.tv channel with the collaboration of the European project STARS4ALL and the HESS High Energy Observatory. “The eclipse was spectacular. The darkness of totality lit the sky and for two hours we were able to witness the red moon, Mars and the giants of the Solar System: Jupiter and Saturn. Just above our heads the center of the Milky Way glowed brightly. The show exceeded our expectations ”, comments Miquel Serra-Ricart, IAC astronomer and head of the broadcast.
During the eclipse, the Moon has not completely disappeared from view, but has acquired a reddish hue originating from the nickname red moon or blood moon. This is because the Earth’s atmosphere, which extends about 80 km beyond the diameter of our planet, acts as a lens that deflects light from the Sun. At the same time, it effectively filters its blue components and lets only light pass through. red that reflects our satellite, in a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering.
Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are visible from anywhere in the world, once the Moon is above the horizon at the time of the eclipse. Because of this, today we can enjoy spectacular images taken from all corners of the Earth.
