Lunar Eclipse 02.20.08

The combination of two events -a total lunar eclipse, and a clear night sky (in Seattle both are quite rare) prompted me to go out and document the occasion.

I could see a lot of detail with my binoculars, and managed to take a few photos and video, but most of the detail was lost.

Unlike solar eclipses, lunar ones aren't particularly spectacular. The Moon does not go completely dark, but acquires a redish hue. While Earth does block all direct sunlight to the Moon, some is refracted through Earth's atmosphere, the blue portion of the spectrum being absorbed in the process -just like at sunset, when sunlight paints everything red.

I wonder how it looked like from the Moon. I imagine the Earth slowly blocking the Sun, its black circumference bordered by a red-gold ring of glowing atmosphere... but that of course, would be a solar eclipse.