Stunning view of the Milky Way revealed by the latest lunar eclipse

This weekend’s total lunar eclipse led to stunning footage posted by astronomy hobbyists and professionals. The view was even more luxurious for a brief moment, the eclipse offered observers a stunning view of the Milky Way, captured especially by the Gemini Southern Telescope, located in Chile.

As some netizens have pointed out, the Milky Way can be admired most summer nights if you are away from any nights pollution bright. This weekend’s event is no less exciting. At about 5:30 p.m. local Chilean time, when the sun, Earth, and Moon were perfectly aligned, it was dark enough for Gemini Telescope’s All-Sky Camera to get a direct view of our planet’s distant regions. galaxy.

However, a telescope of this strength was not necessary to enjoy the view. Many amateur astronomers have also managed to take great pictures of our galaxy. Even a Canadian photographer captured a stunning panorama of the Milky Way and the aurora borealis in a single shot.

Unmissable event

You might be one of those who woke up at dawn on Monday to enjoy a lunar eclipse. In France, the event started at 3:32 AM and the eclipse became total at the end of the night, from 5:29 AM, max. 6:08 AM – our satellite at that time was completely red. Fortunately, the weather conditions were favorable: the sky was completely clear. A few hours later, the web was filled with images of the phenomenon, and here is a small preview of it:

” It is interesting to see a bright white moon that, over the course of the minutes, takes on a red and extinguished color ”, Advertise for Huffington Post Florent Delivelyan astronomer at the PSL Paris Observatory.

The image by Justin Anderson is also worth a detour: this Canadian photographer managed to combine in one shot the glowing moon, the Milky Way, and the northern lights. Very cool scene:

International Space Station passengers were also able to enjoy the event, but from a completely different point of view. Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut for the European Space Agency, shared one of her photos on her Twitter account. It’s not easy to take a picture, however, as despite such an extraordinary place to observe, the International Space Station’s solar panels obstruct the view, she said.

An eclipse reveals another scene

The video clip showing a glimpse of our Milky Way, which was shared on Twitter by the Gemini Observatory office, was also remarkable. Note the significant drop in brightness between 12 and 17 seconds:

All-sky camera in Tweet embed The South got a good view of the lunar eclipse last night! Notice the sharp drop in brightness between 12-17 seconds! # Find out together #eclipse #EclipseLunar # Eclipse 2022 Tweet embed Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/raOZFa9RyT

US National Gemini Office (usngo) May 16 2022

The curved arc of our galaxy is very clearly visible once the moon “goes out”, and then becomes invisible again once the eclipse is over. We can also like him in these two cute pictures:

The Milky Way is the so-called narrow spiral galaxy (which means that the “arms” of the spiral do not emanate from the center but from a group of stars that cross this center). Viewed from Earth, it looks like a group of stars forming an arc of about 30 degrees, as our solar system lies at the edge of its disk-like structure. Unfortunately, many of us cannot see it due to light pollution in urban areas (when the brightness of the moon does not conflict with observations). Only the sky of a rural, moonless area could make it possible to witness such a spectacle.