Lunar Eclipses 'Flower' Mosaic: Views from Arizona & Chile

Lunar Eclipses 'Flower' Mosaic: Views from Arizona & Chile

In honor of the partial lunar eclipse on August 27, 2026, an array of lunar eclipses “blooms” red in this mosiac image. It is the result of over a decade of photography by the dedicated NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassadors Petr Horálek and Rob Sparks, and their collaborators. The featured eclipses were captured at sites including U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), Programs of NSF NOIRLab.

This image brings together lunar eclipses photographed over the past decade. The red and orange Moons near the center were captured during totality, while the grey outer Moons show partial and penumbral eclipses. The longest eclipse of the century is in the center of the mosaic.

Their positions and sizes are aligned using the angular diameter of Earth’s inner shadow, or umbra, revealing the shadow’s circular form. Because the Moon follows an elliptical orbit, it appears about 14% larger when it is closer to Earth than when it is farther away. During totality, sunlight filtered and bent through Earth’s atmosphere illuminates the Moon in shades ranging from bright copper to deep red. The exact color and brightness depend on how deeply the Moon enters the shadow, as well as the amount of clouds, dust, and aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere at the time. When eclipses occur low over the horizon, the layers of Earth’s atmosphere can affect the appearance of the colors in even more interesting ways. Some of the total eclipses in this image have a difficult-to-observe blue band. This is caused by the absorption of red light by Earth’s ozone layer and indicates the Moon is near the edge of the Earth’s shadow.

The positions and angular sizes of the Moons in the Earth’s shadow are as accurate as possible while creating a pleasing flower shape, though the arrangement is not chronological. The images are color accurate.

Lunar eclipses occur at the full Moon phase. When Earth is positioned precisely between the Moon and Sun, Earth’s shadow falls upon the surface of the Moon, dimming it and sometimes turning the lunar surface a striking red over the course of a few hours. Each lunar eclipse is visible from half of Earth.

Learn more: https://science.nasa.gov/moon/eclipses/

Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Petr Horálek/Institute of Physics in Opava, Robert Sparks, Josef Kujal, John Melson, Dave Hash/Wikimedia
Release Date: Aug. 26, 2026

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