Photographers around the world pointed their cameras to the skies last night for a rare “blood moon” total lunar eclipse.
Total lunar eclipses occur when a full moon passes through Earth‘s darkest, innermost shadow, called the umbra. As only redder-colored light is able to penetrate our planet’s atmosphere, the moon is cast in a blood-like hue that’s often called a “blood moon“. The U.S. was treated to a spectacular “blood moon” in March, but this time it was only visible in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
Earth’s natural satellite spent about 82 minutes totally covered by our planet’s shadow on Sunday night into Monday morning (Sep. 7 to 8) in what was the longest total lunar eclipse since 2022. If you feel like you missed out, Live Science has rounded up some stunning snaps of the event.
In Beijing, China, photographer Sheng Jiapeng snapped a stunning shot of the blood moon rising above the capital’s Olympic Park Observation Tower.
During a lunar eclipse, the moon travels behind Earth relative to the position of the sun, making it the opposite of a solar eclipse.
Related: Full moons of 2025: When is the next full moon?
Photographer Nicolas Economou caught the moon partially in shadow above residential buildings in the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
The moon remains visible during a lunar eclipse because some of the sun’s light refracts through Earth’s atmosphere and hits the moon before reflecting back to the surface of Earth facing the moon.
In Germany, photographer Emmanuele Contini captured the “blood moon” rising behind a spire on Berlin’s Oberbaumbruecke bridge.
The moon appears red because particles in Earth’s atmosphere are scattering the sun’s blue and other short-wavelength light. This leaves the longer-wavelength oranges and reds to pass through and reach the moon.
Photographer Nicolas Koutsokostas took this photo of the “blood moon” beside an air traffic control tower at Athens Airport in Greece.
A lunar eclipse like this only occurs when the moon is perfectly aligned behind our planet, relative to the sun. When the alignment is slightly off, and the sun’s light can still directly hit some of the moon, it’s a partial eclipse. When the alignment is a little further off, we see a regular full moon reflecting the sun’s light back at us — as is the case most months.
The next total lunar eclipse will be on March 3, 2026, according to NASA. The March 2026 “blood moon” will be visible over the Americas, as well as the Pacific Islands, Asia and Australia.
