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| Supermoon lunar eclipse on September 27, 2015. Photo taken from the University of Utah. |
Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is positioned between the sun and the moon so that earth's shadow completely blocks the moon.
The moon has a reddish tint to it. This red color is caused by light scattered by earth's atmosphere, essentially the same phenomenon that causes red sunsets.
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| Left image illustrates light being scattered and refracted by earth's atmosphere. Blue light is scattered most efficiently (that is why the sky is blue). With enough scattering (by a long path through the atmosphere) only red light makes reaches the moon shown on the right. |
Read more about the red moon at
EarthSky
