Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

The way the geometry works out involving the Earth, Sun and Moon, the full Moon can pass through the partial shadow of the Earth on occasion. That’s a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse .... as in my photo below. However, it simply gets dimmer for a while. .... not really that great a phenomenon .... although I liked it .... it is sort of fun if it happens right in the middle of a dinner party and you can show it off to your guests.

Much more rarely, the Moon passes right through the center of the Earth’s shadow and no direct sunlight falls on its surface. That’s an Umbrian Lunar Eclipse and is much more spectacular. An observer on the Earth would first see the bright Moon being “eaten” by the Earth’s dark shadow as it entered the Umbra .... like a cookie-bite .... then as your eyes became accustomed to the dimmer Moon traveling through the Umbra, you would see it as copper colored, like a penny in the sky .... then it passes out the other side of the Umbra and the “cookie bite” look is reversed as it gets whiter and brighter again.

While no direct rays from the Sun reach the Moon during the full eclipse, if you were standing on the Moon and looking up, the Sun would disappear and you would see a ring of reddish light refracted by and through the Earth’s atmosphere. Essentially, what you would be looking at is all the sunsets and sunrises at that moment .... all around the Earth’s horizon .... all at the same time.