See the March 3rd Blood Moon Eclipse in Michigan

Posted on by farlane
Blood Moon over Grand Haven by Randy Riksen Photography

Blood Moon over Grand Haven by Randy Riksen Photography

The Detroit Free Press shares that Michigan’s chances of viewing the “Blood Moon” eclipse early tomorrow morning will depend on the weather:

The “blood moon” eclipse takes place during March’s full moon, which will occur in the early morning of Tuesday, March 3. The full moon’s peak and eclipse’s totality to coincide at 6:38 a.m., according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Clear skies permitting, the Worm Moon could be visible for part of the eclipse in Michigan, with the moon to set for local viewers during totality.

Our friends over at EarthSky explain that total eclipses can turn the moon a deep shade of red, and have lots more detail about viewing. They explain why this eclipse called a Blood Moon eclipse and that the shade of red on the moon will depend mostly on what’s happening in Earth’s atmosphere at the moment of the eclipse.

Randy took this photo of the October 2014 total lunar eclipse over the Grand Haven South Pierhead Lighthouse and says that keeping the camera still enough in the howling wind was a chore in itself!! View & purchase his work including some killer fishing photos on his website.

Lots more solar & lunar eclipse photos on Michigan in Pictures!

Support Michigan in Pictures with Patreon

Photos of the Tax Day Eclipse in Michigan

Posted on by farlane

Tax Day Eclipse by Kevins Stuff

Tax Day Eclipse, photo by Kevin

Here in Traverse City, the weather thoughtfully brought us snow because, well, April, amiright? Thankfully, others were not so unfortunate. If Michigan in Pictures had a house astronomer, it would certainly be Kevin, and thankfully he wasn’t so unlucky. He writes:

The full moon of April lies fully eclipsed in the Earth’s shadow on a cold & snowy April morning in West Michigan.

The Full Moon of April is called the “Full Pink Moon”. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. This year it is also the Paschal Full Moon; the first full moon of the spring season.

About the image…

I had been waiting for this eclipse for a while, having seen my last one in 2008. Unfortunately it didn’t look like the weather was going to cooperate. The day before we had temperatures in the high 60’s with rain and thunderstorms, and the cold front went through Monday morning and dropped the temps into the 30’s. And then it started snowing in the afternoon.

I remained cautiously optimistic, and around 2.30am I could just barely see the moon through the clouds. I took a chance, packed up my cameras, and headed east to my astronomy club’s observatory. When I got there, it was completely cloudy, but I went up and opened the dome and attached my camera to one of the telescopes anyway.

Totality began just after 3.00am, and suddenly about 10 minutes later the clouds parted – I could easily seen the eclipsed moon, the star Spica nearby, and the planet Mars off to the right. I immediately started shooting, and took images at intervals – especially around mid-totality – until the clouds came in around 4.15am. That was fine, as totality ended about 10 minutes later.

I closed up, packed up, and went home. Images downloaded to the computer, quickly scanned for good ones, and here is one of the best. I’ve got a few wide-field ones I’ll put up later.

View Kevin’s photo bigger and see more in his Lunar Eclipse – April 15, 2014 set and in his massive Astronomy slideshow.

More eclipses and more on the moon at Michigan in Pictures. We’ll add links in the comments when we find more media about last night’s total eclipse.