Overview of Lunar Eclipses

9 months ago

In this video I go over a quick overview of lunar eclipses and a bit on solar eclipses. A lunar eclipse is a type of Full Moon that moves directly behind Earth's shadow away from the Sun. A solar eclipse is when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, thus blocking out the Sun in a specific location on the Earth. Lunar and solar eclipses occur at Lunar Nodes, which are points at which the Moon's orbit crosses the Ecliptic, which is the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun.

During lunar eclipses, the Full Moon appears darker than usual. Earth's shadow has two parts, a lighter outer shadow called the Penumbra and a darker inner shadow called an Umbra. Lunar eclipses can be classified as: penumbral lunar eclipse, partial lunar eclipse (only a portion of the Moon passes through the umbra), and a total lunar eclipse (Moon fully passes through the umbra). A central lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the center of Earth's shadow or umbra.

A total lunar eclipse is also called a blood moon because the Moon looks reddish due to Earth's atmosphere scattering higher frequency blue light more than lower frequency red light. Lastly, during a solar eclipse, the Sun is blocked out showing only its outer bands which are called the Corona.

The timestamps of key parts of the video are listed below:

Lunar Eclipse, Solar Eclipse, Lunar Nodes, Ecliptic, Moon's Inclined Orbit: 0:00
Solar Eclipse vs Lunar Eclipse Comparison: 1:58
Earth's Umbra and Penumbra Shadows: 2:37
Summary of Types of Lunar Eclipses: 3:02
Blood Moon or Total Lunar Eclipse: 3:42
Solar Eclipse vs Blood Moon Photographs: 4:41

This video was taken from my earlier video listed below: