In the wee hours of Friday, Nov. 19’th if you just happened to be awake like we were, or if you planned ahead and set your alarm to drag your sleepy head to have a peak outside, there was an incredible partial lunar eclipse to witness! With snow squalls in the forecast, we felt super lucky that the sky was clear and we had such great viewing!
The Beaver Moon eclipse was the longest lunar eclipse in six centuries and lasted about 3 1/2 hours (the full eclipse lasted 6 hours). At around 4 am, during the peak of the eclipse, the earth’s shadow covered 97 percent of the moon’s surface and the moon was cast in a dark, reddish colour.
Why is the November full moon called the Beaver Moon? Well, according to many sources, the term originated with the Indigenous peoples of the Northeast. They observed busy beavers on the brightest nights of November taking advantage of the light and the not yet frozen ponds, to stock up needed supplies, ie. branches and limbs, to get them through the long Winter.
Mary, who is part of our Pure Muskoka team, went out with her camera and braved the cold for several hours (in her Deluxe Heavyweight hoodie, of course) and captured these fantastic shots!
“Unfortunately, at 4 a.m. when Earth’s shadow was covering the moon completely (pretty much), it clouded over so I missed the opportunity to see the moon in its bright red colour. However, while the eclipse was approaching its peak, I could see a tint of red on the rest of the moon. It was really hard to have that show up on my camera, especially with the clouds, but you might be able to tell that the second-last photo in the top row has a reddish hue to it.”
