Astrophotographer Josh Dury captured a beautiful composite view of the March full moon because it rose off the coast of the UK mere hours after a dramatic blood moon complete lunar eclipse.
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Dury captured several moody shots of the cloud-streaked Worm Moon rising on the night of March 3 using a telephoto lens, before combining them into a single visually stunning composition during the post-processing stage, which charted its path through the evening sky.
The distinctive red of the moon in Dury’s image had nothing to do with the eclipse itself — which had occurred hours earlier — but rather resulted from an atmospheric phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering.
As the moon’s reflected sunlight makes a prolonged journey through Earth’s atmosphere while close to the horizon, bluer wavelengths are filtered and blocked by particles in our atmosphere, while longer red wavelengths are able to pass through relatively unperturbed. This effect gave the moon a rusty hue, which was made all the more spectacular by the presence of airborne dust, which had been carried by atmospheric currents thousands of miles north from the Sahara Desert.
Inspired to take your own shots of the moon? Then be sure to read our expert’s guide to photographing the lunar surface, written by Dury, along with our roundups of the best lenses and camera bodies for capturing the post-sunset sky.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your lunar photography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
