lunar eclipse

in two nights, saturday night, march 3rd, there will be a total eclipse of the moon! folks lucky enough to be in western europe and africa will see the whole eclipse, while those in the americas can look to the moon as it rises to see the orange-ish moon, already passing thru the earth's shadow.

the eclipsing moon rises just as the sun sets... this makes sense because a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is directly between the sun and the moon. the moon passes right thru the shadow created by the earth. partial lunar eclipses occur when the three spheres arent exactly alined and the moon passes thru only a fraction of the earth's shadow.

i got the diagram on the right from NASA's eclipse home page.

enjoy!!