Eclipses

The Lunar Eclipse, Seen From the International Space Station

A partially eclipsed Moon playing hide and seek with the solar panel of the International Space Station. Credit: ESA-S.Cristoforetti

If you were able to witness the lunar eclipse on May 15-16, 2022, the view of the dark red Moon was stunning. But what would such an eclipse look like from space?

Wonder no longer. ESA/Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti captured a series of photos of the lunar eclipse from her unique vantage point aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

ESA posted the photos on Flickr, and Cristoforetti tweeted the images out after the eclipse.

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An image of a lunar eclipse as seen from the International Space Station. Credit: ESA-S.Cristoforetti

“A partially eclipsed Moon playing hide-and-seek with our solar panel,” she wrote.

A partially eclipsed Moon playing hide and seek with the solar panel of the International Space Station. Credit: ESA-S.Cristoforetti

Veteran astronaut Cristoforetti has now served on ISS twice. In 2014-2015 she set a record for the longest space mission by a female astronaut, at 200 days, which has since been ‘eclipsed,’ twice. In 2017, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson was on the ISS for 289 days, and then NASA’s Christina Koch (USA) spent 328 days on the space station in 2019-2022.

A NASA astronaut took this image of the Moon near the beginning of the eclipse. You can see more images of the Moon taken by ISS astronauts at this Flickr page.

The Moon, with Earth’s shadow draping across it during a lunar eclipse, is pictured from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/