There was a total lunar eclipse here this evening in Cambodia (and across much of this part of the world.). The sky over Phnom Penh was clear and the eclipse readily apparent.
I was busy this evening and didn’t think I’d have the opportunity to see it, but carried my camera just in case. I stepped outside at about 9:35PM. The eclipse seemed just a bit lopsided, one side of the moon slightly darker than the other. The whole surface was in deep shadow and distinctly pinkish red with a touch of orange.
I aimed my camera skyward and took a couple of snaps. I noticed the Vietnamese woman standing near me, staring at me. I pointed up and said, “eclipse of the moon, shadow on the moon.”
She said, “I know, no good.”
I smiled and said (admittedly somewhat insensitively,) “What? Dragon eating the moon or something?”
She snapped back, “You think this is funny?”
I said nothing.
“Bad luck,” she said. “Bad luck, next year the Dragon comes. Bad luck last time this happened. Bad luck this year and next.”
I didn’t smile this time. Just went back to taking photos. She walked away.
The photo above was the best I could do hand-held. Taken at about 9:52PM with a D5100, 18-200mm lens, f5, 1/30, ISO 6400.
According to the Phuket News:
...the entire eclipse should be visible from Asia and Australia. However, North America and Canada will witness only the start of totality as the moon dips below the horizon.
The partial eclipse begins at 7:45pm when the Moon reaches the umbra, Earth’s inner dark shadow. Totality will be achieved by by 9:06pm as the entire Moon is covered by the Earth’s shadow.
The eclipse will reach its zenith at 9:31pm, with the Moon starting to move out of shadow at 9:57pm.
The total eclipse will last 51 minutes.
From start to finish, the partial and total eclipse phases will take 3 hours 32 minutes, with the final penumbra ending at 12:30am...
Eclipse location:
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