For those that saw the lunar eclipse!

[Shamelessmuse]

I have been sharing this with everyone, because I personally thought it was soooo cool! Granted, I am a huge dork...but, someone might think it is as cool as I do...maybe?

 

Well, here it was a total eclipse and once the moon was blocked it glowed red. I was curious as why it glowed red, so I did a little research. Turns out that at that point the only light it was reflecting was the light that was passing around the earth's sides. That light was the combined light of every sunrise and every sunset occuring at that time. So that beautiful red glow was you watching all the sunrises and sunsets occuring on the earth.

[judygram]

I missed this last lunar eclipse because it was cloudy here where I live but TalonSis made a thread and posted some pics she took that night and shared with us.

 

Thanks Muse for sharing the explanation of why it appears red when in the totality:P

[danmcq]

I missed this one due to cloud cover. I did see the total moon eclipse around 3 years ago on a clear night and it was beautiful with the same red tint.

 

Thanks for sharing the research you did Muse. :-)

[LisaM]

That's really cool info Muse! My daughter asked me that and I told her to go look it up...i think she figured it was too much work or forgot about it.

[Talon]

Talonsis posted some very nice pictures, you should check it out. Too bad theses 2 threads weren't tied together. Click on the link below to see her photo's. B)

 

 

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/the-photography-room/61552-lunar-eclipse.html#61633

[Lyric]

I watched it off an on all night and I agree with you Shamelessmuse, it was very cool. I didn't really know the explanation for the effect- that's a neat thing to think about though. Don't worry- you're not the only dork around here! :cheer:

[Shamelessmuse]

Talon, your sister's pictures were lovely!!

 

I'm so glad that some of you found my dorky tidbit interesting!

[dblhelix]

The moon looks reddish during an eclipse because while the moon is hidden behind the earth the only light that gets to it is filtered through our atmosphere. The atmosphere filters out most of the other shades but leaves red. Thus because the light hitting the moon is red, the moon appeart to turn red.

 

During a total lunar eclipse the Earth casts a complete shadow on the moon because it is directly between the sun and the moon. However, some sunlight is still hitting the moon but this light is bent around the Earth and refracted through the atmosphere. Particles in the atmosphere cause the light rays coming from the sun to bounce around. Some are refracted, or bent. They get redirected through the atmosphere and out around behind Earth and onto the moon, which is blocked only from direct sunlight.

 

Thus, the moon is still visible in the sky. However, the refracted rays of sunlight doing the illuminating turn the moon a strange reddish. Or copper. Maybe rust.

 

That’s because of all the bouncing around those rays had to go through on their way through the atmosphere. The more atmosphere that sunlight travels through, the more the blue and green parts of the spectrum are scattered. That’s why sunrises and sunsets are yellow and pink and red. The low early or late sun, hitting the atmosphere at a shallow angle, has to fight through more atmospheric particles on its way to your eye, and the reddish wavelengths get through better.

 

The same thing happens to sunlight refracted onto the moon during an eclipse. The sunlight hits the atmosphere on the sides of Earth at a shallow angle and is carried through a lot of atmosphere until it’s redirected out onto the moon “hiding” from direct sunlight. The red end of the spectrum is all that can get through that much interference. So the moon in total eclipse appears as an eerie, glowing copper ball in the sky.

 

This is a great link about eclipses for those interested: B)

 

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

[judygram]

Thanks Mark, I knew you would give us an indepth explanation of why the moon looks red during an eclipse and thanks for the link for the ones who want to know more.