Pictures of the Lunar Eclipse and Blood Moon Over Colorado

I woke up at 1:30 AM this morning to go outside and brave the cold weather to observe the Blood Moon that was visible over North and South America last night.  Here is a picture I shot looking up towards the Moon without using the zoom feature on my camera:

The Moon was clearly quite red when looking at it with my eyes, but my camera did not quite capture the reddish color until I used the camera’s zoom feature to get a closer look:

It took me a few shots to get a good picture because when using the zoom I had to hold the camera very still in the low light conditions to capture this image.  Keeping the camera still was a bit more challenging due to the cold weather outside here in Colorado.  Events like this though make me want to get a better camera to take pictures of the night sky which maybe I will do one day.  For those wondering what caused the Moon to have a reddish color due to the eclipse, here is the scientific explanation:

“When it is completely blocked from the sun,” says Petro, “the moon will appear a certain hue of red, which is the projection of all the sunsets on the Earth projected onto the face of the moon. It’s going to be quite spectacular and very beautiful.” That red hue has prompted some to dub this the “blood moon,” though it’s no bloodier than any other lunar eclipse.

“It’s a very subtle effect,” says Petro, “and if any part of the moon is illuminated in the sun, you can’t really see it.”  [Christian Science Monitor]

For those wanting a better look at the eclipse than what my camera could provide this CNN link has a good video from NASA that shows the eclipse and the Blood Moon that followed.