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The September 28th total eclipse of the Moon: up to scratch

8 October 2015

The total eclipse of the Moon, which took place at perigee (the smallest distance from the Earth) and which spanned the period from Sunday September 27th to Monday September 28th, was observable with the Moon high in the sky, and under optimal meteorological conditions … For nothing in the world would the Paris astronomers have missed this rare spectacle. Latest pictures.

Time-lapse september 28th total eclipse of the Moon
© Florent Reix / GEPI - Observatoire de Paris
© Lucie Maquet / IMCCE / Observatoire de Paris
Eclipse of the Moon, during the period spanning the night of Sunday 27th of September to Monday the 28th: photographs taken at the Paris Observatory at 3h22 (French civil time)
© J. Normand / IMCCE / Observatoire de Paris
Eclipse of the Moon, during the period spanning the night of Sunday 27th of September to Monday the 28th, photographs taken at the Paris Observatory at 4h47 (French civil time), at full eclipse.
© J. Normand / IMCCE / Observatoire de Paris

During the eclipse, the Moon took on a rusty colour, with a very dark central shadow, the external parts remaining lighter.

Astronomers at the Paris Observatory attributed to this eclipse a "brightness" of 2, on Danjon’s eclipse scale which has 5 levels (ranging from 0 to 4).

As explained Pascal Descamps, astronomer at the Paris Observatory, at the Institute for Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Computation, « This eclipse enables one to guage the quality of the terrestrial atmosphere. The brightness of the Moon this time showed that the atmosphere was neither specially bad nor specially good, but just about average ", presumably due to the presence of dust at high altitudes »

The next good eclipses of the Moon

The next total lunar eclipse visible in France, identical to yesterday’s, will happen again in just 54 years and 33 days, according to cycle known as the exelignos. See you then, on October 30th, 2069!

But somewhat earlier, another total lunar eclipse visible in France and hight in the sky, will take place on December 20th 2029.

And thus last night’s spectacle was that much more exceptional...