# The recent lunar eclipe colors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 22, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045 "2010-12-22T06:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/1 "2010-12-22T06:17:36Z")
The progressevelly shaded part of the moon looked reddish-y orange-y, not black like a new moon which I expected. What caused this phenomen? ---
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/2 "2010-12-22T06:20:54Z")
The light went through the earth’s atmosphere turning red. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/3 "2010-12-22T06:55:38Z")
Or to be more poetic - the moon was sitting in the sunset light of a sizable fraction of the earth that was at that moment seeing the sun set on the opposite side to the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/4 "2010-12-23T19:20:10Z")
Yep - for just a moment you were seeing the light from every sunrise and sunset on Earth ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/5 "2010-12-24T00:52:01Z")
A followup if I may - in sequential/time lapse images it looks as if the shadow is black while waxing and waning but redish as described by the OP when fully covered. Why is the shadow not red when waxing/waning? (I’m on my iPhone and haven’t mastered the art of copying URLs from Safari, so apologies for not including a link to an image.) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/6 "2010-12-24T03:22:56Z")
> [@D18](#): > > A followup if I may - in sequential/time lapse images it looks as if the shadow is black while waxing and waning but redish as described by the OP when fully covered. Why is the shadow not red when waxing/waning? (I’m on my iPhone and haven’t mastered the art of copying URLs from Safari, so apologies for not including a link to an image.) I think that is just an issue of contrast. When there is still some bright, silvery moon showing, the shadow looks black by contrast. When the moon is completely eclipsed, the reddish glow of the shadow becomes noticeable. Depending on the photographic technology being used, photos may exaggerate this effect. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/7 "2010-12-24T07:46:24Z")
I agree with the above. I have some very old pictures I took on film that I significantly overexposed (essentially I exposed for the shadow during the partial phases) and the shadows are exactly the same reds and yellows as they were during totality, as you would expect. The sunlit moon of course was totally burnt out. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/8 "2010-12-24T08:01:07Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > Yep - for just a moment you were seeing the light from every sunrise and sunset on Earth Mondo cool. Am thinking of other stuff, and will report back. ---
**Author:** ![AlmostPerfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/74df32/32.png) [@AlmostPerfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlmostPerfect)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/9 "2010-12-24T09:35:50Z")
Wikipedia says that this lunar eclipse “will be unusually orange or red” because of some mountain erupting in October. I don’t remember what a usual orange or red would be like but I saw this one and it seemed about right to me. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December\_2010\_lunar\_eclipse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2010_lunar_eclipse) ---
**Author:** ![ClevelandProud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@ClevelandProud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClevelandProud)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/10 "2010-12-26T00:32:03Z")
**Entire nation gets a ‘ringside seat’ to total lunar eclipse** Monday, December 20, 2010 _“… During a lunar eclipse, the Earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon, so there is no direct sunlight to hit and reflect off the moon’s surface. The only light that reaches it is “filtered and bending through our atmosphere,” MacRobert says. That gives it the color of “all of the world’s sunrises and sunsets” together._ - and – \*"… The color the moon takes on during the eclipse depends on what’s in Earth’s upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, says Fred Espenak, a scientist emeritus with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and eclipse specialist. “Volcanoes throw up sulfur dioxide, and when that gets to the upper atmosphere in the stratosphere, it combines with water vapor, creating a smog of sulfuric acid that reddens the light even more. So the more volcanic activity you have on Earth, the more it darkens and reddens the eclipse.” Richard Keen, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado-Boulder, says the stratosphere is fairly clear right now, so this eclipse will be pretty light, most likely bright red to bright orange. “So it will be very colorful,” Espenak says. …"\* [http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-12-20-Eclipse20\_ST\_N.htm](http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-12-20-Eclipse20_ST_N.htm) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/11 "2010-12-26T02:04:54Z")
There’s two parts to a shadow: the _penumbra_ is the fuzzy part around the edge (how fuzzy this is depends on the distance of the object from the light source, and the size of the luminent object; in this case it’s the sun) and the _umbra_ is the solid part. The reddish glow of a lunar eclipse can really only be seen when the moon is in the earth’s umbra. It seems counter-intuitive because we’re used to seeing shadows cast by objects that don’t have an atmosphere. In this unique case you have to picture what the earth would look like if you were standing on the moon while in the earth’s umbra: **An apocalyptic, glowing, red ring of fire around a black, earth-sized disc.** The intense sun at this point is completely occluded behind the earth, but the earth’s atmosphere is bending the sun’s light (which would be the usual sun-set orangey-red), like a lens, around the earth’s surface. Therefore, the sunlight is being filtered through the earth’s atmosphere and projected onto the surface of the moon. This effect is the strongest and in full-effect only when in the earth’s umbra. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/12 "2010-12-28T02:55:24Z")
**CMYK** , so what you’re saying is that from the moon, a solar eclipse is just about the most awesome sight in the solar system! That is so cool. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/13 "2010-12-28T15:00:23Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > **An apocalyptic, glowing, red ring of fire around a black, earth-sized disc.** Like [this](http://www.sliceofscifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/heroes_title_card.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-lunar-eclipe-colors/565045/14 "2010-12-28T17:29:31Z")
Yes, indiddily! The real “fireworks” during a lunar eclipse is _on_ the moon. [Here’s](http://www.eatsleepgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/heroes_nbc_tv_show_title_card_logo1.jpg) what Chessic Sense was trying to link to. But I’m guessing it’s a billion times more spectacular than that.