A lunar eclipse is already pretty fucking bad ass, you know? But, you know what’s even more bad ass? A meteorite striking the Moon during it.

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Check out this picture of the Lunar Eclipse from a couple of weeks ago, rocking out with the Lagoon Nebula in the background. The picture was taken by  Emil Ivanov, and Phil Plait dissects it for some sexy cosmic perspective.

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Today, Bad Astronomy posted this picture of the Lunar Eclipse by Francis Anderson. What exactly is causing the gorgeous effect? Phil Plait over at BA explains:

[The picture was taken at] a small town located at the bone-chilling latitude of 69 ° north, inside the Arctic Circle. That explains the visibility of the gorgeous aurora borealis, the glow from solar subatomic particles as they slam into our atmosphere. Guided by the Earth’s magnetic field to the geomagnetic poles near the north and south geographic poles, these particles shear electrons off the molecules and atoms of air, causing it to glow.”

Outstanding. For more on the picture, including what is causing those columns of light, hit up Bad Astronomy.

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Behold! The Lunar Eclipse as captured from space shuttle Discovery. Pretty.

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Last night was a lunar eclipse. It was also the darkest day in 372 years. Did you miss it? I sure did. I was tired man! Tired! Lay off. Thankfully William Castleman has brought the world a beautiful time lapse video of the event.

Hit the jump for the video.

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