Deep partial lunar eclipse

28 08 2026

Last night (Aug. 27-28), “the full Sturgeon Moon slipped into Earth’s shadow, creating a stunning “almost blood moon” as up to 96.2% of the lunar surface disappears into the darkest part of our planet’s shadow, the umbra.”

The full moon rising over Temple Butte, from the base of Round Top in Spring Creek Basin.

The sun had set by the time the moon rose, and I wish I knew all the techy bits to get the moon exposed correctly and Temple Butte exposed correctly, but you’ll have to take my word for it: It was glorious (as it always is).

While most of this image looks black, that’s actually Temple Butte beneath the rising full moon! 🙂 And the eclipse was already starting when the moon rose over Spring Creek Basin.

You can really see the progression of the shadow taking over in the above two pix. All of the above images were taken from the base of Round Top in Spring Creek Basin. Then, I figured I should head out of the basin while the moon and Earth were doing their thing … and I’d pick it up from farther out in Disappointment Valley as the peak of the eclipse neared.

This was taken at 9:55 p.m.

And this was taken at 10:20 p.m. The “peak” of the eclipse for us in Southwest Colorado was at 10:12 p.m.

Just cool. 🙂 I hope you all got to see it, wherever you live!





Full ‘blood moon’ wow!

3 03 2026

Did you see it??

This early morning’s lunar eclipse sure enough featured the “blood moon” phase of totality, as seen above from Spring Creek Basin over Disappointment Valley in southwestern Colorado.

It.

Was.

COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leaving the shadow.

What an amazing experience to see the moon go from full brightness to pretty dark (OK, that might also have been the clouds during the full first half of totality) back to super bright just before it set over the southwestern ridgeline of Disappointment Valley.

I hope ya’ll saw it. If not, allow the anticipation to build before the next one, around New Year’s Eve/Day (?) in 2028/2029! 🙂