Lunar Eclipse From Mercury
October 8, 2014
| Credit | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington |
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| PIA Number | PIA18739 |
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As millions of people observed a total lunar eclipse on Oct. 8, 2014, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft also was watching.
From Mercury, the Earth and Moon normally appear as if they were two very bright stars. During a lunar eclipse, the Moon seems to disappear during its passage through the Earth's shadow, as shown in the two frames above.
MESSENGER was 107 million kilometers (66 million miles) from the Earth at the time of the lunar eclipse. The Earth is about 5 pixels across and the Moon is just over 1 pixel across in the field of view of the NAC, with about 40 pixels distance between them. The images are zoomed by a factor of two and the Moon's brightness has been increased by a factor of about 25 to show its disappearance more clearly.
