Lunar Eclipse

When I was in elementary school we all went outside to watch a solar eclipse. We were instructed to only view the shadow over the sun through the hole in a piece of paper. I of course had to look. I can't help myself! It's like touching the hot plate when a server tells you not too. I have never seen a lunar eclipse until last night. I took a picture of the moon rising scenically over the power lines at about 6:30pm. We tried to set up a telescope but none of us could figure out how to work the thing. The clouds covered the moon for a few hours but by 9pm the eclipse was visible. The moon was definitely orange-ish. I wasn't really sure what caused a lunar eclipse so I looked it up in Wikipedia.....

"A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, the Moon is always full during a lunar eclipse."

This eclipse could also be seen all along the west coast of North America just before sunrise but instead of eclipsing top to bottom it eclipsed bottom to top or vice versa. I may have reversed that but it was opposite either way. My little camera doesn't have a very powerful zoom so this picture is awfully pixalated but you can still see the shadow.

This photo from the local paper gives you a better idea of what the moon really looked like. If you missed it there will be another full lunar eclipse in 2010.