The First Total Lunar Eclipse Since 2022 (I’m so glad they’re back!)

Each image is a single shot, not HDR. I selected images that were on the cusp of being blown out/underexposed to try and display the full dynamic range, aligned to illustrate the shadow of the Earth (the umbra).

Fun fact: the blue band is actually light passing through the Earth’s Ozone layer, scattering to project on the surface of the moon 🤯

I hope you like it!

A bit about why this shot matters to me: Total Lunar Eclipses are one of my favourite photographic subjects. They happen so infrequently, each experience is unique, sticking in my mind for years.

The last time I shot a total lunar eclipse (in 2022), I was stuck in a job that was burning me out. As I sat under the eclipse of 2022, I had hours to watch one of the most incredible natural phenomena that Earth has to offer, reflecting on the changes I could make to my life.

Now, 3 years later, I’ve quit my job and am pursuing the life of my dreams as a creator, artist, and educator (on YouTube). Shooting the 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse brought me right back to the place I was 3 years ago, reflecting both on how grateful I was to be in a much better place than I was during the last eclipse, and that the clouds stayed away for this magical experience.

—

I used photopills to plan the shots, Sony a7iii, 100-400 mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter, and u/skywatcherusa Star Adventurer 2i with an equatorial mount for tracking. 

EXIF: f9-f11, ISO 100, 560 mm, shutter speeds ranging from 1/250 –> 20 s

The images were processed in Lightroom, increasing the dynamic range and emphasizing the natural colours picked up by my camera. Minor sharpness & denoise was also applied.

The images were aligned in Photoshop to illustrate the shadow of the earth. Please note that this shadow is not exactly to scale, but it’s hard to show so many phases without expanding the shadow a bit.

—

Edit: for those asking about prints, I do have this image available on my darkroom printshop: [https://wanderloots.darkroom.com/products/moon/1647965](https://wanderloots.darkroom.com/products/moon/1647965)
Thanks so much for the support! 😊

fun fact: you can see the shadow of the earth in this composite which shows you the relative sizes of the earth and moon

Why the moon trajectory on the sky in not a line (locally)