Planet Earth's Umbra: The View from China

Planet Earth's Umbra: The View from China

The dark, inner shadow of planet Earth is called the umbra. Shaped like a cone extending into space, it has a circular cross section most easily seen during a lunar eclipse. On the night of September 7/8 the Full Moon passed near the center of Earth's umbral cone, entertaining eclipse watchers around much of our fair planet, including parts of Antarctica, Australia, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Recorded from Zhangjiakou City, China, this timelapse composite image uses successive pictures from the total lunar eclipse, progressing left to right, to reveal the curved cross-section of the umbral shadow sliding across the Moon. 

Sunlight scattered by the atmosphere into Earth's umbra causes the lunar surface to appear reddened during totality. However, close to the umbra's edge, the limb of the eclipsed Moon shows a distinct blue hue. The blue eclipsed moonlight originates as rays of sunlight pass through layers high in the upper stratosphere, colored by ozone that scatters red light and transmits blue. In the total phase of this leisurely lunar eclipse, the Moon was completely within the Earth's umbra for about 83 minutes.

Zhangjiakou is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province in Northern China, bordering Beijing to the southeast, Inner Mongolia to the north and west, and Shanxi to the southwest. 

During a lunar eclipse, Earth gets in the way of the Sun’s light hitting the Moon. This means that during the night, a full Moon fades away as Earth’s shadow covers it up.

The Moon can also look reddish because Earth’s atmosphere absorbs the other colors while it bends sunlight toward the Moon. Sunlight bending through the atmosphere and absorbing other colors is also why sunsets are orange and red.

During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon is shining from all the sunrises and sunsets occurring on Earth.

NASA's Lunar Eclipse Page:
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/lunar.html

Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night)
Wang's Website: http://www.luckwlt.com/About%20Me.html

Release Date: Sept. 11, 2025

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