What did the eclipse look like from the moon's surface? See photos taken by lunar lander

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The total lunar eclipse that unveiled a reddish blood moon overnight to nearly half of Earth looked a bit different from the vantage of our celestial neighbor.

The Blue Ghost lunar lander, operated by Firefly Aerospace from Texas, was able capture the phenomenon between Thursday night and Friday morning while stationed on the moon's Earth-facing side.

From Earth, the cosmic lineup of the moon, Earth and sun caused the moon to appear with a striking red glow. But from the lunar surface, the effect would have been reminiscent of the total solar eclipse many Americans witnessed in April 2024.

And if you thought witnessing a total lunar eclipse from Earth was a rare treat, that's nothing compared to how often the spectacle has been seen from the moon. While this week's lunar show was the first visible to the U.S. since November 2022, more than 50 years have passed since an American spacecraft has been on the moon during an event appearing as a total lunar eclipse on Earth.

Firefly Aerospace's achievement, occurring toward the end of its 14-day mission, also marks a first for an American commercial company.

Here's a look at what Blue Ghost captured, and more on why the accomplishment is historic.

Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander captures eclipse from moon

Blue Ghost's first look of the eclipse came at about 1:30 a.m. EST Friday from the spacecraft's landing site in Mare Crisium, a 300-mile-wide basin on the near side of the moon believed to have been created by volcanic eruptions.

Totality, whereby the Earth blotted out the sun's disk to reveal the sun's corona, lasted for more than two hours, with the entire eclipse process ending around 6 a.m.

On Friday morning, Firefly Aerospace then released two images captured by its lander with a wide-lens camera on its top deck.

Because the sunlight temporarily disappeared, capturing the footage required the solar-powered lander to rely on its batteries for power rather than its solar panels. The company, based in Cedar Park, Texas, not only planned to take photos of the phenomenon, but to potentially operate a suit of NASA scientific instruments to measure changes in the lunar environment during an eclipse.

Intuitive Machines' Athena lander would have documented the eclipse during its own lunar mission, had it not tipped over and died during its March 6 landing on the moon's south pole.

What is happening on the moon during a total lunar eclipse?

Back on Earth, the phenomenon we witnessed overnight was a total lunar eclipse that manifested as a red moon appropriately nicknamed the "blood moon."

The process to create the stunning celestial sight is a complex one, requiring the moon to not only be full, but for the Earth to pass perfectly between it and the sun. With Earth's shadow cast over it, the moon appears to us to be dimmer and more reddish than usual.

Blue Ghost witnessed something entirely different from the lunar surface.

As the cosmic lineup unfolded, our blue planet appeared dark, surrounded by a ring of light as it blocked the sun above the moon's horizon. That phenomenon is best known as a total solar eclipse, which many Americans witnessed nearly a year ago from Earth as the moon similarly shielded the sun from us.

NASA lunar landers last spotted eclipses in 1960s

It's exceedingly uncommon for a spacecraft to be on or near the moon when the celestial body aligns wit the Earth and sun to produce an eclipse.

Blue Ghost, though, follows in the footsteps of one other NASA mission that previously witnessed the phenomenon from the lunar surface.

NASA's Surveyor 3 mission, which sent an uncrewed lander to the moon ahead of the arrival of the first American astronauts, became the first to observe a solar eclipse from the moon on April 24, 1967, according to NASA. Observers on Earth, of course, saw the event as a lunar eclipse.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was also flying near the moon during the 2017 total solar eclipse and managed to image the moon’s shadow over a large region of the United States during the event.

Few humans have ever witnessed a solar eclipse from outer space.

In 1966, Gemini XII astronauts for the first time photographed a solar eclipse from Earth's orbit as they flew over the Galapagos Islands.

Then in 1969, the Apollo 12 astronauts returning from the moon experienced a solar eclipse as they passed through Earth's shadow and the planet blocked the sun from their spacecraft. From their perspective, the Earth appeared about 15 times larger than the sun, according to NASA.

Blue Ghost lunar lander nears end of mission

Viewing and capturing the eclipse was a bonus for Blue Ghost, which launched Jan. 15 from Florida on a mission to deploy 10 NASA science instruments.

The spacecraft landed less than two weeks ago near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille to begin surface operations, which will help the U.S. space agency pave the way for humans to return in the years ahead under its Artemis program. American astronauts have not stepped foot on the moon since NASA's Apollo missions ended in 1972.

Blue Ghost is expected to continue operations through Sunday, testing the lunar environment for NASA and capturing a lunar sunset before shutting down several hours into the frigid lunar night.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for Paste BN. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com