Bruce Murray Space Image Library
Total Lunar Eclipse of April 15, 2014
![Total Lunar Eclipse of April 15, 2014](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_2400x1266_crop_center-center_82_line/20150309_eclipsecomposite2.jpg 2400w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x633_crop_center-center_82_line/20150309_eclipsecomposite2.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x405_crop_center-center_60_line/20150309_eclipsecomposite2.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x304_crop_center-center_60_line/20150309_eclipsecomposite2.jpg 576w)
Although pop culture captured the religious furor over a tetrad of eclipses falling on holidays, I'm satisfied that this is really just another Lunar eclipse. By compositing each distinct phase of the eclipse into a single coherent image I attempt to bring to life the temporal arc of the event as the Moon passed in, through and out of Earth’s dark (umbral) shadow. The Totality phase of the April 14-15 eclipse lasted nearly 1.3 hours and it took about 3.5 hours for the Moon to completely sweep through the Earth’s dark shadow on the night of April 14-15.