Why The Moon Looks Red During A Lunar Eclipse

As we noted a few times this month, a lunar eclipse is happening soon and while lunar eclipses occur twice a year, this is the first time on the Winter Solstice since 1554 A.D.    The second most popular question we get about lunar eclipses (First being "Is it safe to look at?  Answer: "Yes") involves the reddish color - people want to know why the moon looks red during a lunar eclipse. First, the basics: A lunar eclipse happens when the moon, Earth, and the sun all line up with Earth in the middle.     It is an eclipse because Earth's shadow is cast onto the full moon which dims its surface.  read more

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