What is an eclipse? 1.

When the Earth, moon and sun are all perfectly aligned, observers on Earth may be able to witness an eclipse. There are two main types of eclipses; lunar eclipses and solar eclipses. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lies between the sun and the Moon, and the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon. Anyone on the side of the Earth that faces the Moon at that time can see such an eclipse. If only the outer part of Earth's shadow croses the Moon, then a partial eclipse is seen; if the central part of the shadow covers the Moon, the result is a total eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon lies between the sun and the Earth, and blocks the view of the sun. If the Moon only partially blocks the sun then this causes a partial eclipse; if the Moon completely coves the sun, the result is a total eclipse.

THE SCIENCE OF LUNAR ECLIPSES - WHAT IS GOING ON

Orbital Information Earth orbits the Sun once every 365.24 days. For all intents and purposes, the Earth orbits the Sun in the same plane year after year. The Moon orbits Earth once every 29.53 days. It also orbits in a plane, but that plane is tilted relative to Earth's orbital plane by 5.1. That means the Moon will only be in the same plane as the Earth and Sun two times in a lunar orbit (called "nodes"). These crossing points are, more often than not, not lined up so that the Sun, Earth, and Moon form a straight line. This is illustrated in the picture (courtesy of Wikipedia, image was released into the public domain) on the next page. It shows the Sun's path relative to Earth as a yellow line. The Moon's path is illustrated as a grey line. The Moon will make one full revolution in 29.53 days, whereas the Sun will take the 365.24 days. Unless the two bodies are at the same nodal point at the same time, there will not be an eclipse. Remember, this diagram is not meant to imply the Sun orbits Earth. Think of it more as illustrating the Sun's and Moon's paths through Earth's sky throughout the year.

Why You Can See the Moon During a Total Eclipse & Why It Is Red If the Moon is completely within Earth's shadow so that the Sun is completely blocked from shedding light on its surface, then the question may be asked of why you can see it at all. The reason lies in Earth's atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere acts like a lens, bending light that passes through it. Even though the solid part of Earth is blocking the Sun completely, the atmosphere can still bend light around the Earth, allowing the Moon to remain visible. As the atmosphere bends the light, it also filters the light and it does not treat all colors equally. It preferentially will scatter shorter-wavelength light - bluer light - which is why the sky appears blue. But, the more atmosphere light passes through, the more the longer wavelengths (redder light) will also be scattered, which is why sunsets are red. After passing around Earth's disk to reach the Moon during a total lunar eclipse, the Sun's light has passed through a lot of Earth's atmosphere, filtering out most of the bluer colors and leaving only a little bit of red light left to reflect off the Moon, giving the lunar eclipse its red colors.

New Moon
Starting at the New Moon, we can see that the Moon is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun. This means two things:

the night side of the Earth is facing the wrong way to see the Moon. Because the Moon and Sun are in the same part of the sky as seen from Earth, if it's night -- ie. the Sun is down -- then the Moon must be down too. In other words, the Moon is only up (above the horizon) in daytime. It rises at Sunrise, and sets at Sunset. The lit side of the Moon is turned away from Earth; the dark side is towards us. There is very little illumination on the dark side -- there is the reflected light from Earth, but that's much weaker than direct Sunlight -- so the Moon is very dim.

The combination of these things -- the Moon being dark, and only up in daytime -- makes the New Moon pretty much impossible to see

Full Moon
At the next stage, we can see that the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. This means two things: the dark side of the Earth -- which is to say, the part which is currently in night-time -- is the part which can see the Moon; and it sees the whole lit side of the Moon. This is a Full Moon, which rises at Sunset, and sets at Sunrise. We are now half way through a lunar month.