Skies over Frankfurt had been covered with thick rainclouds two weeks ago, and so I had missed the Lunar Eclipse of February 20/21. But never mind - here is a photo of that event, the most awesome photo of a Lunar Eclipse I have ever seen:

Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2008 March 1; Credits & Copyright: Alex Mukensnable.

The photo was taken from top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in the evening of February 20, local time. The total eclipse of the Moon was already over. The Sun was just setting in the West, casting the shadow of the volvano on the haze of the Eastern horizon. And there, the Moon was rising, just leaving the shadow of the Earth. Indeed, the shadow of the Earth is a disk, “fixed” below the shadow of the tip of Mauna Kea, which at this very moment actually is just a small bump at the border of this disk. And can see the outline of this shadow, because it still covers large parts of the the Moon, some 400,000 kilometres away.

The photo is part of a most amazing video Alex Mukensnable has made of this special Moonrise on February 20 - check it out!

Thanks to The Ridger from thegreenbelt for the link!