The moon turns red. People freak out. Suddenly, your Instagram feed is a wall of blurry, grainy, or suspiciously "perfect" orbs of crimson light.
Honestly, capturing a picture of blood moon is way harder than it looks. Most people step outside with an iPhone, point it at the sky, and end up with a glowing white dot that looks more like a streetlamp than a celestial event. Or, on the flip side, you see those viral shots where the moon looks massive—like, "Independence Day" movie massive—towering over a tiny lighthouse. Those are real, mostly, but they involve a level of optical compression that basically defies how our eyes actually see the world.
A "blood moon" isn't some mystical omen, though it feels like one when you're standing in the dark at 3:00 AM. It’s a total lunar eclipse. The earth slides directly between the sun and the moon. Our atmosphere filters out the blue light and bends the red light toward the lunar surface. NASA scientists call this Rayleigh scattering. It’s the same reason sunsets look like a watercolor painting.
The Science Behind That Red Glow
Let's get into the weeds for a second. Why red? Why not purple or green?
When the Earth blocks the sun, the only light hitting the moon is the light that has passed through the Earth's ring of atmosphere. If you were standing on the moon during an eclipse, looking back at Earth, you’d see a fiery red ring around our planet. You’d be looking at every sunrise and every sunset happening on Earth all at once. That light is what illuminates the moon.
The "redness" varies. It’s not a one-size-fits-all color. Sometimes it’s a bright, brick orange. Other times, it’s so dark it’s almost invisible, a deep charcoal prune color. This is measured by the Danjon Scale. If there’s been a recent volcanic eruption—like Hunga Tonga in 2022—the stratosphere gets filled with aerosols. Those particles block even more light, making the blood moon look incredibly dark, almost like it’s being erased from the sky.
How to Take a Picture of Blood Moon That Doesn't Suck
Most people fail because they trust their phone's "Night Mode." Don't.
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Night mode is designed to brighten up a dark room or a street scene. But the moon is actually a sunlight-reflecting rock. Even during an eclipse, it’s relatively bright compared to the pitch-black sky. Your phone tries to overexpose the shot, which is why the moon usually looks like a blown-out white hole.
If you want a decent shot, you need to go manual.
- Use a Tripod: You can’t hold a camera still for two seconds. You just can't. Even your heartbeat will shake the frame when you're zoomed in.
- The "Looney 11" Rule (Sorta): In normal lunar photography, you’d use an aperture of f/11. During a blood moon, the light drops by about 10 to 15 stops. You’ll need to open your aperture wide (like f/2.8 or f/4) and crank your ISO.
- Shutter Speed Warning: The moon moves. Faster than you think. If your shutter stays open for longer than a second or two, the moon won't be a circle. It’ll be an oval. It’ll be blurry.
I remember trying to shoot the "Super Flower Blood Moon" back in May 2021. I was in a field in the middle of nowhere. I had a 600mm lens. Even then, the moon only filled a small portion of the sensor. The real trick pros use is called "stacking." They take dozens of photos and use software like Starry Landscape Stacker or DeepSkyStacker to merge them, which kills the digital noise and brings out the texture of the lunar craters.
The Problem With Focal Length
If you use a wide-angle lens—the "1x" on your phone—the moon will look like a tiny speck. To get that "National Geographic" look, you need a focal length of at least 400mm or higher.
But wait. There’s a catch.
When you use a massive telephoto lens, you lose the foreground. You can’t get the moon and a cool building in the same shot unless you are miles away from that building. That’s why those "moon over the city" shots are taken from five miles out. It’s all about perspective.
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Why We Are Obsessed With These Images
There is something deeply primal about seeing the moon turn the color of rust. For thousands of years, humans saw this and thought the world was ending. The Inca thought a jaguar was attacking the moon. They’d howl and make their dogs bark to scare the cat away.
Today, we just post it on Reddit.
But there’s a shared humanity in it. When a blood moon happens, millions of people are looking up at the exact same time. It’s one of the few times we all stop scrolling and acknowledge that we live on a rock spinning through a vacuum. A picture of blood moon serves as a digital receipt of that "wow" moment.
Common Mistakes and Myths
People often confuse a "Blood Moon" with a "Harvest Moon" or a "Blue Moon."
A Harvest Moon is just the full moon closest to the autumn equinox. It looks big and orange because it stays near the horizon, but it’s not an eclipse. A Blue Moon is just the second full moon in a single month. It’s not actually blue.
A Blood Moon is the only one that actually changes physical color due to Earth's shadow.
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Another myth: "The moon is bigger during an eclipse."
Nope. That’s the "Moon Illusion." Your brain is weird. When the moon is near the horizon, your brain compares it to trees or houses and decides it’s huge. When it’s high in the sky, there’s no reference point, so it looks smaller. It’s the same size. Every time.
What’s Coming Next?
If you missed the last one, you're going to be waiting a bit. Total lunar eclipses don't happen every month. We usually get a couple of lunar eclipses a year, but they aren't always "total." Sometimes they are penumbral, which basically just looks like a slightly dusty moon. Boring.
The next big "total" blood moons aren't just around the corner. We had a great run in 2022, but the mid-2020s are a bit of a dry spell for certain parts of the world.
Practical Steps for Your Next Night Shoot
Stop waiting for the night of the event to practice. Go out tonight. The moon is there.
- Download a Moon App: Use something like PhotoPills or The Photographer's Ephemeris. These apps show you exactly where the moon will rise and set. You can literally see if the moon will align with a specific skyscraper or mountain peak.
- Focus on the Stars: Don't try to autofocus on the moon. It’s too bright and low-contrast for some cameras to grab. Focus on a bright star or use manual focus with "focus peaking" turned on.
- Shoot in RAW: If you shoot JPEGs, your camera's computer is making decisions for you. It’s throwing away data. Shooting RAW allows you to pull the shadows out and fix the white balance later. This is crucial for getting that deep, "bloody" red right.
- Watch the Weather: Seriously. A single cloud can ruin a four-hour wait. Check transparency reports, not just "is it raining." You want clear, dry air. Humidity makes the moon look soft and mushy in photos.
The reality is that a picture of blood moon is a trophy. It’s proof you were there, cold and tired, watching the clockwork of the solar system do its thing. Even if the photo is a little blurry, the memory of seeing the sky go dark and the moon turn to fire is what actually sticks.
Get a sturdy tripod. Turn off your flash (seriously, why do people use flash for the moon?). Set a timer so you don't shake the camera when you press the button. Then, just wait. The shadow moves slow, but the color is worth the wait.
Next Steps for Enthusiasts:
Check the NASA Eclipse Web Site for the exact dates and "path of totality" for the upcoming 2025 and 2026 lunar cycles. If you're using a smartphone, invest in a dedicated "long exposure" app like Halide or Spectre to bypass the aggressive AI smoothing that usually ruins celestial shots.