The lunar eclipse over Merritt Island, Fla.

[KSC-00PP-0091]

  • Photo Number: KSC-00PP-0091

  • Release Date: 20-Jan-2000

    • Description: Traveling west to east, the full moon, viewed from Merritt Island, Fla., at 10:18 p.m. EST, begins moving into the Earth's shadow, at the start of a lunar eclipse. Eclipses occur when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up. They are rare because the Moon usually passes above or below the imaginary line connecting Earth and the Sun. The Earth casts a shadow that the Moon can pass through –when it does, it is called a lunar eclipse. They can only occur when the moon is "full." During a total lunar eclipse the Moon takes on a dark red color because it is being lighted slightly by sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere and this light has the blue component preferentially scattered out (this is also why the sky appears blue from the surface of the Earth), leaving faint reddish light to illuminate the Moon during the eclipse.

    Resolution Format Width
    (Pixels)    		 Height
    (Pixels)    		 Size
    (Bytes)
    Thumbnail GIF 100 66 10072
    Slide GIF 172 147 36411
    Low GIF 320 210 95706
    Medium JPEG 1024 673 48509
    High JPEG 2670 1755 506816

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    Photos By: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    Scanned By: Seven/Still Photo Imaging
    Captions: Information Dynamics, Inc (Kay Grinter, Anita Barrett, and Elaine Liston)
    Curator: NASA/KSC Internet Systems Lab (Dumoulin, Downs, Paladino)
    Last Updated: Friday October 24 11:46:17 EDT 2003 (Anita Barrett)

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