increasingly dark. By the peak of the event, the moon was extremely dim. Thin clouds plagued my viewing of the peak, but breaks in the clouds allowed average seeing. Overall it was very exciting to witness the transformation. Anyone who had never seen an eclipse would be astonished at the event.
Near-by Spica added extra contrast to the scene with its bright blue appearance. Brilliant Mars also shown orange above the moon.
Another phenomena, on April 14th, gave the total lunar eclipse an even greater frame. Mars comes closest to earth on this date and is therefore brightest the night of the 14th. With bright blue Spica and orange Mars near, the moon had a great backdrop during the eclipse.
When totality started to fade, I was very tempted to fall asleep but more determined to watch the whole eclipse. Orange slowly pulled away from the moon and darkness
Image credit: Grant Regen