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Stunning photos of the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century

By Laura Geggel 19 November 2021

The moon turned a blood red.

The partial lunar eclipse, the longest in 580 years, is seen above an illuminated building on Nov. 19, 2021 in the city of Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province of southeast China.  (Image credit: Shen Junfeng/VCG via Getty Images)

The full moon turned bloody red early Friday morning (Nov. 19) when Earth's shadow covered nearly all of it in a partial lunar eclipse for nearly three and a half hours — the longest eclipse of its kind in 580 years.

At first, November's Micro Beaver Moon, named for it's smaller-than-usual appearance because the moon was at apogee, or at its farthest point from Earth, rose into the sky like any other luminous full moon. But then, at around 2 a.m. EST (7 a.m. GMT), the moon entered Earth's umbra, or dark shadow. It looked like a dark bite had been taken out of the moon.

Once the 95% of the moon was covered with the umbra, it turned an eerie red. Earth's atmosphere is to blame: while Earth blocked most of the sun's rays from reaching the moon, some of those rays went around Earth and through its atmosphere, letting only the longer wavelengths, such as red, through.

Here are stunning images of the full moon and the partial lunar eclipse, captured by photographers around the world.

Related: Do other planets have solar eclipses?

Beaver Moon from Bogatá

A compilation of Beaver Moon photos taken throughout the different phases of the partial lunar eclipse on Nov. 19, 2021, as seen from Bogotá, Colombia. (Image credit: Daniel Garzon Herazo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Wisconsin moon

Live Science reader Kaitlin Moore took this photo of the Nov. 19, 2021 partial lunar eclipse with a Nikon D750 with a 600mm Sigma lens at 3:02 a.m. CST in Madison, Wisconsin. (Image credit: Kaitlin Moore)South of Seoul

Earth's dark umbral shadow covers part of the full moon in Sangju, south of Seoul on Nov. 19, 2021. This was the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century.  (Image credit: Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Ruddy red

Live Science reader Kris Gulden took these four photos as Earth's umbra increasingly covered the Micro Beaver Moon. These photos (earliest at top left, going clockwise) were taken in the 3 o'clock hour of the morning in Fairfax, Virginia.  "It was cold but worth it," Gulden said. (Image credit: Kris Gulden)Texas shot

A view of November's full moon during the partial lunar eclipse on Nov. 19, 2021 in Austin, Texas. The eclipse was visible, weather permitting, in all 50 states of the U.S. (Image credit: Rick Kern/Getty Images)View from Japan

A commuter shot this blushing photo of the moon on the way to work in Atsugi, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The eclipse could be seen, weather permitting, in North America and large parts of South America, Polynesia, eastern Australia and northeastern Asia, NASA reported. (Image credit: taka _maru)New Jersey perspective

Live Science reader Megan Farrell in New Jersey snapped this photo of the partial lunar eclipse on Nov. 19, 2021. The full eclipse lasted 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds. (Image credit: Megan Farrell)By the bridge

The full moon partly disappears behind Earth's dark shadow during the partial lunar eclipse on Nov. 19, 2021. Below, you can see Zolotoy Bridge over the bay of Zolotoy Rog (Golden Horn Bay) in Vladivostok, Russia. (Image credit: Yuri Smityuk\TASS via Getty Images)

Originally published on Live Science.

Laura Geggel

Editor

Laura is an editor at Live Science. She edits Life's Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archaeology and animals. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and an advanced certificate in science writing from NYU.

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