Tonight we observed the full lunar eclipse. Unlike previous lunar eclipses we’ve seen, the reduction of light being reflected from the moon and orange coloration of tonights event was very noticeable. Even though the photo from my phone is terrible, the view with the unaided eye was great.
During a full lunar eclipse, the moon passes through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow – the umbra. When the moon is within the umbra it gets a reddish hue because blue and green light get more easily scattered by dust particles in the atmosphere and orange and red colors remain more visible, according to NASA. Lunar eclipses are sometimes called blood moons because of this phenomenon.
