7 September 2025. My first attempt at photographing a lunar eclipse. I started late, when the Moon was already deep in Earth's shadow, and stayed with it until the bright face had almost returned. Two and a half hours, a red Moon, clouds that kept moving through, and far more photographs than I expected.

Starting late

The first frames were already crescents. I had missed the beginning, but not the part where the Moon seemed to disappear.

A thin bright crescent of the eclipsed Moon against a black sky
The first frame
A thin bright crescent of the eclipsed Moon
Nine seconds later

Totality

The Moon went dark enough to disappear behind the clouds. The first photograph here is what the night looked like around it: buildings below, cloud across the sky, and no obvious Moon at all.

Cloudy night sky and lit buildings during the lunar eclipse
The sky during totality

Then the red came through the cloud.

The small red Moon visible through clouds during totality
Red, through the clouds

This is the red Moon shot I could get. Not sharp, not large, but there it was.

The reddish-orange Moon during totality
The red Moon

Coming out of the shadow

After midnight, the light began to return. A thin edge first, then more of the Moon every few minutes.

A thin bright edge appearing on the Moon after totality
The first bright edge
More of the Moon emerging from Earth's shadow
Seven minutes later
The illuminated part of the Moon growing after totality
The bright side growing
The Moon continuing to emerge from Earth's shadow
Still emerging

The clouds

The clouds kept crossing the Moon. They hid the eclipse at times, but they also made the strangest photographs of the night.

The Moon shining through a narrow line of cloud
A line of cloud
The Moon partly veiled by cloud
Cloud, moving through

One frame stood apart. The Moon lit the cloud from inside it.

The Moon surrounded by a circular glowing cloud
The cloud, lit from inside

Clear again

The cloud moved on. The shadow kept receding, and the details on the Moon came back with the light.

The Moon emerging from Earth's shadow after clouds passed
Out from the cloud
More of the Moon's surface illuminated after totality
More of the surface
Earth's shadow receding across the Moon
The shadow receding
The Moon nearly clear of Earth's shadow
Almost back
A small part of Earth's shadow remaining on the Moon
A small shadow left
The Moon in the final minutes of the eclipse
The final minutes
The Moon at the end of the lunar eclipse
What a sight!

Watching it was different from seeing a finished eclipse photograph. Photographing it meant staying with every change: the first crescent, the red Moon, the clouds, and the light coming back. For a first attempt, that is the part I want to remember.

The photographs are far from perfect, but the Moon made me slow down, keep trying, and be grateful for what I managed to capture.