Best 'Blood Moon' Lunar Eclipse Pictures: Social Media Goes Ablaze on October 2014 Night

Wednesday morning's eclipse was a more significant event than usual for two reasons: it was last lunar eclipse of the year, and it was a 'Blood Moon'. The phrase 'Blood Moon' comes from the reddish, coppery color that the moon gives off in the sky as the sunsets in the Earth's atmosphere illuminate the lunar surface. The color of the moon varied from location to location in the world due to the amount of dust in the atmosphere, but the celestial effect was still the same.

One benefit of this being a solar eclipse rather than a lunar one was that it actually could be sen by the naked eye without the danger of scorching your retina when trying to catch sight of it. The eclipse lasted for roughly an hour and began at varying hours early in the morning, depending on what time zone you were in.

If you forgot about the event, or just did not want to stay up late to watch it, you are in luck as you can still see what the Blood Moon looked like in the night sky. This being such a major event, it naturally garnered a lot of attention on social media. Here is a round up of some of the most prominent posts about the event from last night.

Even though it was a global event, the eclipse was naturally going to be more visible in certain areas given the differing anomalies that take place in different parts of the world. Here is a map break down of how the visibility was going to be throughout the United States.

Naturally there were plenty of people using their point-and-shoot smartdevices to get a quick shot of the blood moon in their own night sky. They obviously were not the most detailed shots, but they showed off the effect of the astronomical occurrence regardless.

Those pictures showing off the small red marble in the sky are good enough, but there are also plenty of shots that actually got a full detailed profile of the eclipse. This one is from none other than a NASA telescope. If you have to trust anyone to get a shot this effective, there are few better than NASA.

Like we said, the colors of the moon were actually going to vary based on location as evidenced by this shot where it takes on more of a golden hue than was seen in other parts of the world. The golden color might be a bit more common than the much publicized red, but the detail that graces the surface is no less striking.

Celestial events like this eclipse are one of the few things that everyone in the world can actually take notice of within the same time period, so it is interesting to get so many perspectives on the event.

This was the second lunar eclipse of the year, known as the Hunter Moon since it occurred after the Harvest Moon. The next lunar eclipse will happen on April 4, 2015.