Rare lunar eclipse last night captured over Surrey

The partial lunar eclipse captured over Surrey
-Credit: (Image: Chris Thorn)


Surrey and the rest of the UK witnessed a rare partial lunar eclipse where the Earth’s shadow partially covered the moon. If you didn’t stay up for the celestial display, here’s what you missed out on.

Captured from a garden in Epsom, the picture shows the partial lunar eclipse at its most visible stage. Chris Thorn, a chef, took full advantage of his day off today (Wednesday) and stayed up into the early hours of this morning to capture the sight.

He said: “It was fast moving cloud, it was obviously quite breezy. At some points it would be covered in cloud, you couldn’t see it. It appeared quite quickly and at peak time around half three, the sky just cleared.

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"I didn’t have to panic to take a photo, I could actually focus and try and take a good photo. When the sky cleared it was cool seeing all the stars and Jupiter and all that.”

Chris happened to be up at the time of the eclipse, and doesn’t normally have an interest in such sightings but admitted he had a good time and a calming experience witnessing the spectacle. He explained: “It is kind of nice just sitting out at night, with no background noise. If I went outside now, you’d see all the traffic and the trains.

“I didn’t actually find it too cold, I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter saying ‘I’ve been sat outside for ages, I’m freezing’ I thought it was alright to be sat out with a cup of tea.”

Chris stayed up from 1.30am until 3.30am on the advice of a friend, who messaged him informing him of the eclipse.

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the sun and the moon, but they are not perfectly aligned. As a result, only a portion of the moon passes through the Earth's umbra, the central and darkest part of its shadow.

The rest of the moon remains in the ‘penumbra’, the lighter outer part of the shadow, meaning it is still fully illuminated by the sun. During a partial lunar eclipse, the shadowed part of the moon appears darkened, while the rest remains bright. According to the BBC, the next partial lunar eclipse will take place in August 2026, when around 96% of the moon will be in shadow.

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