Red Cactus Moon
On May 26, 2021, a lunar eclipse was visible here in Chile in the early morning hours. A lunar eclipse happens when the full moon moves through the Earth’s shadow. During totality, when the lunar disk is totally emerged in Earth’s dark umbral shadow, the moon appears reddish. This effect is caused by the reddened sunlight from all the planet’s sunsets and sunrises that is scattered by Earth’s atmosphere.
The total phase of the May 26, 2021, lunar eclipse was rather short and only lasted 14 minutes. At this end of the world, totality was invisible because it was happening a few minutes before sunrise. However, the partial phase before totality was beautiful to watch in our local mountain area.
