April 2015 lunar eclipse

A total lunar eclipse happened on 4 April 2015. It is the first of the two lunar eclipses in 2015, and the third of the tetrad (four total lunar eclipses in a row).

Totality only lasted for 4 minutes 43 seconds, making it the shortest totality of a lunar eclipse in almost five centuries.

 Background 

A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes within Earth's umbra (shadow).

The animation below shows how the Moon looks when passing through Earth's shadow. The Moon turns red within the umbral shadow. The southern part of the Moon will be the closest to the center of the shadow, making it the darkest, and the most reddish in appearance.

File:Animation April 4 2015 lunar eclipse appearance.gif

Dispute
Some people argued that this lunar eclipse was not a total one. Eclipse watchers noted that during totality, there is a shiny edge on the Moon, which showed that the Moon was not completely in the Earth's shadow. Therefore, it is only a partial lunar eclipse.

Images

References

Category:Lunar eclipses
Category:April 2015 events