Early this morning, star gazers across China – and most the Eastern Hemisphere – were treated to a spectacular cosmic sight: a partial lunar eclipse.
The action kicked off at roughly 1.22am China Standard Time last night, with the eclipse’s peak taking place at around 2.20am. The celestial show wrapped up at 3.18am.
For those of you who slept through astronomy in high school: a partial lunar eclipse happens when the earth travels between the sun and moon, but the three fail to form a straight line in space. When this happens, the earth casts a dark shadow on part of the lunar surface.
On occasions when the three form a perfectly straight line through space, earth’s shadow fully enshrouds the moon, creating a total lunar eclipse.
Last night’s partial lunar eclipse has been referred to by some as a prelude to to the approaching total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, which, regrettably, will only be visible from North America (some are calling it the ‘Great American Eclipse’).
Scroll down for photos of last night’s ‘dance of galactic bodies’ from across China.
Guangzhou, Guangdong
Neil deGrasse Tyson, eat your heart out
Hainan
Hebei
The rarely captured ‘partial airplane eclipse’
Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
Admittedly not an eclipse photo, but just in case you're curious what the moon looked like last night from Hohhot
Hunan
Shenzhen, Guangdong
A ‘total Ping An International Finance Centre eclipse,’ very infrequent, very special
Additional reporting by Jocelyn Richards.
[Images via Tristin Zhang, ifeng.com, Sina Hebei, Hohhot impression, Hengyang Daily, Southern Daily News]
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