And now for something completely different: Lunar eclipse from Cairo

Tonight, most of the Eastern hemisphere was treated to the full moon passing through its longest and deepest total eclipse in over a decade. Apparently, the best locations for seeing the whole show were Eastern Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Western tip of Australia, so being in Cairo I was in a pretty good position.

I set my camera up on a tripod on the balcony of my apartment, and watched the moon rise up above the 11-storey block of apartments opposite. As it appeared, the Earth’s shadow was already beginning to cross it, and its brilliant white colour gradually became more and more obscured. Below are two of my shots, and note that neither of them has been edited in any way: 

This shot, taken at 21:22, shows the last sliver of white light disappearing from the surface of the moon.

The redness of the moon during totality depends partly on global atmospheric conditions, and is pretty unpredictable. By 22:00, when this shot was taken, I could hardly see it with my naked eye. But my trusty Canon has picked it up pretty clearly, and yes, it's blood red. I'm sure it would have been considerably clearer away from the city's light pollution, but nevertheless I'm pretty happy with this.