Stargazers across the UAE and around the world were up all night as they witnessed the year's last partial lunar eclipse. The moon took on different shapes from 10.45pm on Wednesday (July 17) till 4:00am the next day as the earth moved between the sun and the moon.
It was a special occasion, for the next eclipse won't happen until mid-2021. And two Khaleej Times photographers were on the ground, capturing the lunar spectacle.
"I wanted to capture the different phases of the eclipse and stationed myself in Sharjah's Al Soor area. We were fortunate enough to have clear skies. It was breathtaking," said one of the photographers, M. Sajjad.
The other photographer, Neeraj Murali, felt cityscape shots were "overdone" and so he wanted "something abstract". "That's when I decided to head down to Al Farooq Omar Bin Al Khattab Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque. Shooting the moon with a foreground involves planning. I had to go during the day to frame the shot. With the help of a planet tracking app, I angled myself and visualised the shot."
He headed back to the mosque around 11.30pm. "The earth's shadow touched the moon's surface at exactly midnight. Thanks to the accurate app and advance planning, in the end, it was all worth it."
A partial eclipse is when the earth moves between the sun and the moon, but the three bodies do not form a straight line. This causes a part of the moon's surface to be covered by the darkest and central part of the earth's shadow.