15-03-2025
Stargazers capture blood moon over Cumbrian skies
Early risers across Cumbria were up before dawn on Friday morning to catch a glimpse of the blood moon.
A 'blood moon' is created when the moon moves into Earth's shadow, gradually darkening before turning red.
In a partial lunar eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon are almost, rather than fully, aligned. This means a dark section appears on the moon.
Cloudy conditions obscured the view for some in Cumbria (Image: Pauline Crane) Astronomer Jake Foster, at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: 'When the Earth comes between the sun and the moon, the only sunlight that can reach the moon must first pass through the Earth's atmosphere.
'As sunlight enters the atmosphere, different wavelengths (and therefore colours) of light will be scattered and bounced around by differing amounts. Blue light scatters a great deal, which is why our skies are blue.
'Red light is mostly unaffected by the gases of the atmosphere, so it travels all the way through them and out the other side where it can shine on the moon, making it appear red.'
The moon started to turn red at around 5.30am and became most visible just before 6.30am.
Unfortunately, across Cumbria the moon wasn't visible everywhere due to forecaster cloud cover.
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Paul Grindley from Brampton braved the chilly conditions near Brampton on Friday morning and managed to get a shot of the blood moon.
'It was a bit chilly but worth it to get the photo,' said Paul.
Pauline Crane also ventured out early to grab a picture of the blood but the cloudy, Cumbrian conditions prevented her from getting a close up view.
The last total lunar eclipse was in May 2022 when the moon turned completely red.
