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Total Lunar Eclipse of 16th July, 2000 - Matrix
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July 2000 Akuna Bay, Sydney - Australia |
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This is a sequence of photos that was composed in Photoshop, showing the Eclipse from beginning to end. The top row shows the first partial phases, the second row shows the total phases, and the bottom row shows the last partial phases. At first the weather looked to be perfect, however during totality, clouds began to pass by, and soon after totality, the whole sky clouded over. This is the reason why there is not as many shots of the 2nd half of the eclipse. On this night, totality lasted 1hr 47mins, which is within seconds of the theoretical maximum duration of a Total Lunar Eclipse! This was because the Moon was passing almost directly through the center of the Earth's shadow, and also because the Moon was at apogee (its furthest distance from the Earth), which means that its orbital motion around the Earth was nearly the slowest that it reaches (objects orbit faster when they are closer to the object they are orbiting around). A Total Lunar Eclipse of this length won't be visible for another thousand years or so! Anyone who witnessed this Eclipse can be sure it was and will be the longest one they will ever see in their whole life.