--- title: See Photos of the Shortest Lunar Eclipse of the Century description: The full "blood moon" lunar eclipse lasted just five minutes canonical: https://time.com/3771423/photos-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-04T13:48:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:42.696Z article:section: Science og:title: See the Photos of the Shortest Lunar Eclipse of the Century og:description: The full "blood moon" lunar eclipse lasted just five minutes og:url: https://time.com/3771423/photos-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d4635a61a4440ab/698786b2cd1bba88e96f6058/lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The eclipse above cherry blossoms in Shiraishi city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 4, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See the Photos of the Shortest Lunar Eclipse of the Century twitter:description: The full "blood moon" lunar eclipse lasted just five minutes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d4635a61a4440ab/698786b2cd1bba88e96f6058/lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Photos of the Shortest Lunar Eclipse of the Century by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Apr 4, 2015 1:48 PM UTC  The eclipse above cherry blossoms in Shiraishi city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 4, 2015. The eclipse above cherry blossoms in Shiraishi city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 4, 2015.Kyodo News/AP by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Apr 4, 2015 1:48 PM UTC  The blood moon lunar eclipse sets behind Pikes Peak April 4, 2015 in Colorado Springs. John Leyba—Denver Post/ Getty Images  The blood moon lights up the sky during a total lunar eclipse on April 4, 2015 in Auckland. Phil Walter—Getty Images  The eclipse above cherry blossoms in Shiraishi city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 4, 2015. Kyodo News/AP  The lunar eclipse seen from Melbourne, Australia on April 4, 2015. David Crosling—EPA  The beginning of the total lunar eclipse seen from Canberra, Australia, on April 4, 2015. Luckas Coch—EPA ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3771423/photos-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3771423/photos-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/"},"headline":"See Photos of the Shortest Lunar Eclipse of the Century","datePublished":"2015-04-04T13:48:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:42.696Z","description":"The full \"blood moon\" lunar eclipse lasted just five minutes","url":"https://time.com/3771423/photos-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/","keywords":["Space","astronomy","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d4635a61a4440ab/698786b2cd1bba88e96f6058/lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d4635a61a4440ab/698786b2cd1bba88e96f6058/lunar-eclipse-blood-moon-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The eclipse above cherry blossoms in Shiraishi city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 4, 2015.","caption":"The eclipse above cherry blossoms in Shiraishi city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 4, 2015.","creditText":"Kyodo News/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3771423/photos-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/","name":"See Photos of the Shortest Lunar Eclipse of the Century"}}]}] ```