This Saturday, not even the early hours of dawn, nor the chilly, foggy weather discouraged passionate viewers to witness one of the most dazzling sights of the year – a total lunar eclipse which cast much of southern hemisphere in a shroud of delight. It was the last of the year, and in quite a while at the same time – the next similar event will be in 2014.
This weekend’s eclipse lasted around 50 minutes, about half the duration of 2011’s other total eclipse, which occurred on June 15th. Although its effect was a bit brief, this weekend’s show more than compensated in looks, as it was much brighter than the previous one. Moreover, to the night watcher’s delight, the whole moon took a pale red glow from sunlight scattering through a thin layer of the earth’s atmosphere.