An astronaut in space captured haunting photographs of Friday’s total lunar eclipse, also called a blood moon because of its eerie orange-red colour.
German astronaut Alexander Gerst, a geophysicist and spaceflight veteran, launched toward the International Space Station(ISS) on June 6.
In the short time the European Space Agency astronaut has been in orbit, he’s done some stunning photography of Earth and the moon.
On Friday, Gerst watched and photographed the eclipse from his temporary home about 250 miles above the planet.
Here are a few pictures he snapped, plus some other share-worthy imagery he’s recorded over the past eight weeks.
Astronauts on the space station see the moon many times per day because they orbit Earth about once every 90 minutes. It helps that their viewing platform is far above any clouds.
Gerst took this photo of the moon fading into Earth’s atmosphere on June 22, 2018.
Gerst trained on Earth to use all the photo gear at the space station before he launched into orbit.
In addition to being a steady shot, Gerst will be the commander of the Expedition 57 mission aboard the ISS.
On July 27, 2018 — when the moon was eclipsed by Earth’s shadow — Gerst was ready. The core of the planet’s shadow, called the umbra, coloured the moon red because of the way Earth’s atmosphere refracts the sun’s light.
Alexander Gerst/European Space Agency
“Just took a photo of the lunar eclipse from the International Space Station. Tricky to capture,” Gerst said in a caption for this picture. “The slight hue of blue is actually the Earth’s atmosphere, just before the moon is ‘diving into it.'”
The moon was in totality (fully shadowed by the umbra) for nearly an hour and 43 minutes. Views during the partial eclipse, when the moon is in Earth’s outer shadow, or penumbra, were equally haunting.
“A partially eclipsed moon, with our neighbuoring [sic] planet in the background, just before diving into Earth’s atmosphere. Just magical,” Gerst said of this image.
Gerst managed to snap a handful of pictures before the blood moon wrapped up.
“Caught the moon leaving Earth’s core shadow, just before setting over the South Atlantic,” Gerst said of this photo. “Last photo of the lunar eclipse taken from ISS.”
When he’s not shooting a lunar eclipse, the German astronaut likes to photograph long shadows cast by cloud formations below him.
“Did I mention I love cloud shadows?” Gerst wrote on Flickr while sharing several images he’s taken of the phenomena.
Gerst has also managed to record time-lapse videos of auroras on Earth.
“Alexander Gerst captured this time-lapse of a dancing aurora just 10 days into his Horizons mission aboard the International Space Station,” the ESA said.
But Gerst’s real work is running experiments in orbit. He’s even working with a floating robotic head called CIMON, short for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion.
The machine is powered by IBM Watson and will help guide Gerst through experiments while recording his every move.
Gerst is expected to land back on Earth in December 2018, according to NASA.
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Observation from Chelsea, Victoria, Australia at 06:07am AEST (UTC+10). 

On Friday–Saturday —depending on observer's timezone— a total lunar eclipse occurred as the Moon was in the shadow of the Earth. As normal during such an eclipse, the Moon became faint and turned completely red as bluer light was  by the Earth's atmosphere.  Totality of 1 hour and 43 minutes was the longest in the 21st century.

People were able to observe the eclipse from Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.  A volunteer named José Jiménez uploaded a photo of the incident today from  in , Catalonia, Spain, featuring the Moon, Mars, and the  on the same photo.

German astronaut  took photos of the Moon from the International Space Station and uploaded them to  on the same day.

According to timeanddate.com, the timeline of the eclipse was as follows.




Event

Time (UTC)July 27



Start penumbral eclipse

17:14:47



Start partial eclipse

18:24:27



Start full eclipse

19:30:15



Maximum eclipse

20:21:44



End full eclipse

21:13:11



End partial eclipse

22:19:00



End penumbral eclipse

23:28:38



Mars was also visible near the Moon; coming this week, reported , closer to Earth than at any time since 2003.


Panoramica Luna de Sangre, Marte y la Via Lactea (42842944115).jpg|An observation from Alt Empordà in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, featuring the Moon, Mars and Milky Way, uploaded on July 31, 2018. Imzage taken at 23:31, on July 27, 2018. 
Visibility Lunar Eclipse 2018-07-27.png|Visibility map of the eclipse.
Watch Today full moon eclipse full video live 28th - full moon eclipse video from India - red moon.webm|India. 
ImageNA.svg|
Alexander Gerst - Lunar Eclipse 2018 - photo 2.jpeg|International Space Station. 
Alexander Gerst - Lunar Eclipse 2018 - 43637755162 0aa8cd69c9 o.jpg|International Space Station. 
SAM 0613 (28791930147).jpg|Location unknown. Includes Mars. 04:44, July 28, 2018 
File:SAM 0649 (42777978065).jpg|Location unknown. Includes Mars. 05:13, July 28, 2018 
End of blood moon over Brastad old cemetery.jpg|Sweden. 22:36, July 27, 2018. 
Lunar Eclipse 3310.jpg|Observation from Austria, 22:15, July 27, 2018. 
Eclipse de Luna de sangre desde Planetario de Madrid 03.jpg|Madrid, Spain. 23:29, July 27, 2018. 
2017 Total Lunar Eclipse (43663340212).jpg|Switzerland. 20:25, July 27, 2018. 
Eclipse de lune 2018 (29816524528).jpg|A series of images from  Télescope Celestron NexStar 8 SE, 

File:The Moon Before Eclipse in 20180727, Fuzhou 01.jpg