The moon is obscured by the Earth’s shadow in this image taken the evening of May 15, 2022 near Sheridan. (Charlotte Belton)

Humans witnessed Earth’s immense shadow Sunday night as it obscured the moon during a full lunar eclipse.

In Wyoming, clear skies made for exceptional viewing of the event, which was visible as soon as the moon began to rise around 8:30 p.m. At that point, the Earth’s shadow already darkened a small portion of the full moon. For roughly the next 60 minutes, the moon moved into the full umbral shadow of the Earth, which gave it a dark chestnut hue not unlike Wyoming’s red dirt.

The shadow of the Earth almost entirely covers the moon in this image, taken May 15, 2022 near Sheridan. (Charlotte Belton)

With cooperative weather, the eclipse was visible with the naked eye. However some, like Charlotte Belton of Sheridan, (who serves on WyoFile’s board) set up telescopes or watched through binoculars.

Belton captured these images by pointing her iPhone at the telescope, she said. She particularly likes an image taken before totality, in which the moon appears to have Saturn-like rings, she said.

Totality lasted more than an hour, giving viewers plenty of time to gaze and ponder the immense scope of the universe.

Katie Klingsporn reports on outdoor recreation, public lands, education and general news for WyoFile. She’s been a journalist and editor covering the American West for 20 years. Her freelance work has...

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for: 

  • Your real name — first and last. 
  • Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
  • The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
  • Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
  • Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
  • No more than three comments per story, including replies. 

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

  • Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
  • Comments that are not directly relevant to the article. 
  • Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
  • Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
  • Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know: 

  • Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement. 
  • We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
  • We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance. 
  • Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
  • We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you. 

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Reply