Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse Captivates Skywatchers Across Americas, Europe, Africa

On the night of May 15th and into the early morning of May 16th, 2022, the moon turned blood red. The event began at 10:28 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, when the moon first entered Earth's shadow. By 12:11 a.m., it had moved fully into the umbral shadow—the deepest part of Earth's darkness—and the transformation was complete. The red glow came from sunlight bending through Earth's atmosphere and casting that refracted light onto the lunar surface, a phenomenon that has captivated observers for centuries.

The eclipse was visible across a vast swath of the planet: the Americas, Antarctica, Europe, and Africa all had clear views of the celestial event. For those watching from Houston, the experience was one of gradual transformation. Rukhsar Mahmood described seeing the moon appear unusually large in the evening sky, then watched as it seemed to shrink and darken, covered by what she called a red and black shield that slowly consumed the entire lunar face. The moonlight, which had illuminated the night moments before, simply vanished.

From different vantage points across North America, the eclipse revealed itself in subtly different ways. In San Bruno on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, Robyn and Mike Morris captured the vivid crimson hue that gave the event its popular name. In Bend, Oregon, Gregg Collins photographed the moon in its full ruddy glory. Near Bayfield, Colorado, at an elevation of 7,400 feet, Juan Romero watched the moon glow red against the high-altitude darkness. In Edenton, North Carolina, Bud Shanholtz recorded a haunting image around 11:11 p.m. Eastern time. From Ottawa, Canada, another observer framed the eclipse above the city's rooftops.

The eclipse was not limited to North America. In Buenos Aires, the moon appeared during the penumbral phase—the outer edge of Earth's shadow—creating a more subtle dimming. Across Europe, from Brighton in the United Kingdom to Venice, Italy, to Spain and France, skywatchers documented the event. One observer in France described it as a magnificent display of cosmic choreography, the blood moon fading into the sunrise. In South Africa, the eclipse was equally visible and equally striking.

The timing of the eclipse created different experiences depending on geography. The partial eclipse phase lasted from 10:28 p.m. EDT Sunday through 1:55 a.m. EDT Monday. In New Zealand, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, observers witnessed a penumbral eclipse—when the moon passes through only the outer shadow of Earth—which began and ended roughly an hour after the partial eclipse phase. This created a more delicate effect, visible only under certain lighting conditions, as the lighter shadow of Earth fell across the lunar surface.

What made this eclipse particularly notable was its visibility to densely populated regions. Millions of people across multiple continents had the opportunity to witness the event, and many did, sharing their observations and photographs across social media and with astronomy communities. The experience transcended geography and language; whether watching from a rooftop in Ottawa or from a high-altitude location in Colorado, observers described similar moments of wonder at seeing the familiar moon transformed into something otherworldly.

The eclipse of May 2022 was the first of two lunar eclipses that year. The second would arrive in November, with visibility across Asia, Australia, North America, and parts of northern and eastern Europe, the Arctic, and most of South America. For those who missed the May event or wanted to experience another, that date marked the next opportunity to witness the moon's passage through Earth's shadow.