An astronaut in space captured haunting photographs of Friday’s total lunar eclipse, also called a blood moon because of its eerie orange-red color.
German astronaut Alexander Gerst, a geophysicist and spaceflight veteran, launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) on June 6.
In the short time the European Space Agency astronaut has been in orbit, he’s done some stunning photography of Earth and the moon.
On Friday, Gerst watched and photographed the eclipse from his temporary home about 250 miles above the planet.
Here are a few pictures he snapped, plus some other share-worthy imagery he’s recorded over the past eight weeks.
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Astronauts on the space station see the moon many times per day because they orbit Earth about once every 90 minutes. It helps that their viewing platform is far above any clouds.
Gerst took this photo of the moon fading into Earth’s atmosphere on June 22, 2018.
Gerst trained on Earth to use all the photo gear at the space station before he launched into orbit.
In addition to being a steady shot, Gerst will be the commander of the Expedition 57 mission aboard the ISS.
On July 27, 2018 — when the moon was eclipsed by Earth’s shadow — Gerst was ready. The core of the planet’s shadow, called the umbra, colored the moon red because of the way Earth’s atmosphere refracts the sun’s light.
"Just took a photo of the lunar eclipse from the International Space Station. Tricky to capture," Gerst said in a caption for this picture. "The slight hue of blue is actually the Earth’s atmosphere, just before the moon is ‘diving into it.’"
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