Eclipse wows watchers

March 04, 2007

A spectacular eclipse of the moon wowed skywatchers across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas on Saturday (Mar. 03.) The surface of the full Moon first went dark before turning a coppery red. The phenomenon occurs when the Earth passes directly between the Moon and the Sun. Light scattering through the Earth's atmosphere is reduced to predominantly-red wavelengths, which reflect off the lunar surface. The reason an eclipse does not happen every time there is a full Moon is that the Moon's orbit is inclined at five degrees to the Earth's orbital path around the Sun. As a result, the Earth's shadow usually passes above or below the Moon.