Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is
featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 October 10
Moons at Opposition
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Rick Baldridge
Explanation:
From the early hours of October 8, over
the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos,
California, the totally eclipsed Moon shows a range
of color across this well-exposed telescopic view of the
lunar eclipse.
Of course, a lunar eclipse can only occur when the Moon
is opposite the Sun in Earth's sky and gliding
through
the planet's shadow.
But also near opposition during this eclipse,
and remarkably only half a degree or so from
the lunar limb, distant Uranus is faint but easy to spot
at the lower right.
Fainter still are the
ice giant's moons.
To find them, slide your cursor over the image
(
or
just follow this link) to check out a longer exposure.
While even the darkened surface of our eclipsed Moon will be
strongly overexposed,
Uranus moons Titania,
Oberon, and Umbriel can just be
distinguished as
faint
pinpricks of light.
Tomorrow's picture: moonrise
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(
MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (
UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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