Blood moon total lunar eclipse puts on stellar show
November's full blood moon marked the last total lunar eclipse until March 2025 and the first on Election Day.
Blood moon eclipse: See the most incredible photos from around the world
See the awe-inspiring images captured around the world during the 2022 beaver blood moon.
The moon put on a spectacular show Tuesday that won't reoccur for more than two years, and it was worth the early wakeup.
Early Tuesday morning, the sun, Earth and moon aligned so that the Earth’s shadow covered the moon creating a blood-red glow during the lunar eclipse. The total lunar eclipse, also known as the beaver blood moon lunar eclipse, graced the sky above North and Central America, the Pacific, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
This combination of pictures shows the moon in various stages of the Blood Moon during a total lunar eclipse in Christchurch, New Zealand on November 08, 2022. On Tuesday evening people across Australia and New Zealand could see a total lunar eclipse. (Photo by Sanka Vidanagama/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
November's full moon marked the last total lunar eclipse until March 2025, and people around the world stayed up late or woke up early to celebrate the occasion.
If you did happen to sleep through the rare astronomical event, you are in luck because as the saying goes, "pics or it didn't happen." Photographers – both professional and amateur alike – captured the moon in all its beauty over the period of about four hours during all phases of the blood moon total lunar eclipse.
A total lunar eclipse glows above NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center Pad 39B in the pre-dawn hours on Nov. 8, 2022. (Image: NASA/Sean Cannon) (NASA)
In Florida, the eclipse provided a backdrop for NASA's mega moon rocket, the Space Launch System, currently awaiting liftoff from Kennedy Space Center.
The bright lights of KSC launchpad 39B stole a bit of the view from the moon. Later this month, the 322-foot-tall rocket will soon launch on its first flight sending the Orion spacecraft around the moon and back.
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The National Weather Service office in Juneau, Alaska, enjoyed a double celestial treat with the Northern Lights and the lunar eclipse.
Cooler fall weather and colors provided seasonal flair to the lunar eclipse in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. The image below of fall foliage and the eclipse was taken in New York City.
A total lunar eclipse known as the Blood Moon is observed and recorded as the last lunar eclipse before 2025 in New York City, United States on November 08, 2022. (Photo by Islam Dogru/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
A lunar eclipse is often called a blood moon because, during an eclipse, the only sunlight reaching the moon passes through Earth’s atmosphere. That leaves red light – which has a longer wavelength than blue light and is less prone to being scattered out by our atmosphere – to cast a reddish glow on the lunar surface.
In Virginia, the NWS Wakefield office was up early to see the blood moon glowing during totality.
The blood moon also kicked off Election Day in the U.S. as millions of voters head to the polls on Tuesday.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory ambassador Tony Rice told FOX Weather this was the first lunar eclipse on Election Day.
The Election Day blood moon lunar eclipse is seen behind the Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol dome on Tuesday morning, November, 8, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
For more views of the beaver moon total lunar eclipse, check out the gallery below.