Normally, the full Moon is bad news for Northern Lights; lunar glare overwhelms the delicate aurora borealis. The full Moon of Dec. 21st, however, was different. It slipped into the shadow of Earth for a lunar eclipse, reducing the glare and allowing the auroras to come out and play:

Aurora
© Spaceweather
"Auroras were dancing in the Northern sky while eclipse was happening," says photographer Yuichi Takasaka of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. In the snapshot, at left, the Moon is circled, apparently not much brighter than surrounding stars. A video below, prepared by Takasaka shows how dramatically the sky darkened while the Moon was inside Earth's shadow. "What a night!"


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