The Lima sky allowed thousands of people to appreciate the lunar eclipse that reddened the star this Sunday night.
This Sunday, May 15, the whole world witnessed the ” Blood Moon “, the name by which the astronomical phenomenon of the lunar eclipse is popularly known , and Peru was no stranger to it.
From 8 at night, social networks were filled with publications from the sky of Lima, the capital, with photographs of the Moon in its penumbra and umbra phases.
The lunar eclipse from Lima
The general attention of the people of Lima towards the sky to see if the night sky would be clear, without clouds, to be able to appreciate the phenomenon.
Fortunately, in most districts of the city, this was the case, which allowed us to observe this unique event.
In lunar eclipses, the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow in two parts. In the first, the penumbra, the satellite only darkens slightly, but when it passes through the umbra, it darkens even more, turning red.
As light passes through Earth’s atmosphere, short wavelengths, such as blue, are scattered. When the light finishes its journey to the Moon, only longer wavelengths, such as red, remain in the so-called Rayleigh scattering of light from the Sun.
The eclipse lasted about five hours and in its total phase – when the star is completely covered by the shadow of the Earth – a little more than an hour.
The next total lunar eclipse will occur in November, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.