APOD: Eclipsed Moon in the Morning (2011 Dec 24)

[APOD Robot]

Eclipsed Moon in the Morning

Explanation: December's lunar eclipse graced early morning skies over the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA. There, this wintry scene finds the Moon in a cold blue twilight sky near the western horizon, above the snowy North American Continental Divide. About 22 minutes before the sunrise, the reddened lunar disk is almost completely immersed in Earth's dark shadow. This dramatic Rocky Mountain moon set during the eclipse total phase. But all parts of the geocentric celestial event were seen from Pacific regions, Asia, and Australia, including the entire 51 minutes of totality, and parts of the final eclipse of 2011 were shared in skies around much of planet Earth.

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[owlice]

What a lovely sight!

[pebble]

This would look better if some sort of contrast filter hadn't been applied to the eclipsed moon. No part of the moon should be darker than the sky around it, since the moon can only be as dark as space. Since the sky is lightening *that*, the same should happen to the moon. As it is, the moon looks pasted on.

[StarGrizzly]

Congratulation! Fantastic and amazing image.
I just love this site.

[orin stepanek]

What a lovely sight!

Congratulation! Fantastic and amazing image.
I just love this site.

Ditto

[borealis]

I'm sorry to say I think this is the worst ever APOD photo. There was either too much, or not enough, post production work done on it. Washed out color, bland sky and no real point of focus.

[owlice]

I think it's a great image! The color is not at all washed out; perhaps you need to calibrate your monitor (or replace it).

[biddie67]

Put my vote in the "awesome" column!! Where was the photographer positioned to take this picture? It almost seems like he would have to be in an airplane.

[TNT]

What a beautiful landscape! It seems that the lunar eclipse is still a favorite to many.

[moonstruck]

Very nice.

[Wolk Kotenberg]

I think APOD is testing reader's observational skills. What does the original image look like colorwise ?

[islader2]

@ BOREALIS I am truly amazed at your response. When I lived outside Denver, I would rise early whenever I could see a full Moon over the Rockies. A truly amazing experience. An eclipse is beyond ecstasy in such a setting. My heart goes out to you for your inability {IMHO} to see the grand majesty of this APOD.

[neptunium]

What is IMHO?
at least I'm not asking the leading solon, Chris Peterson.

[owlice]

IMHO = in my humble opinion

[Chris Peterson]

I think APOD is testing reader's observational skills. What does the original image look like colorwise ?

I took images from about the same place, at the same time. While today's APOD is very lovely, the actual event did NOT look like that. By this time, the sky was light enough that it was getting fairly hard to see the most eclipsed part of the Moon at all, and its color was only showing a hint of red. Indeed, seeing any color really required using binoculars. The slight alpenglow was definitely brighter and redder than the eclipsed Moon.

The images I posted at http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 35#p164407 are minimally processed, and reflect pretty accurately the visual appearance of the eclipse. Note in particular that things were much less saturated than today's APOD would suggest.

Click to view full size image

Ths particular shot was taken just three minutes earlier before sunrise than the APOD. This is almost identical to the visual appearance of the scene (also looking at the Moon setting over the Continental Divide, less than 30 miles from the location of today's image). This image was taken without using HDR, which part of why it gives a more accurate visual representation of the eclipse at that moment.

Of course, what is most accurate visually isn't always the most photogenic, and there is no requirement that an astronomical image faithfully reproduce what the eye sees... even in those rare cases (like today) when that is even possible.