Along the left edge in northern hemisphere viewing, a dark curved edge starts moving into the bright circle. As time passes, the shadow edge gets bigger and the amount of light coming from the moon gets less as seen in look around what had been moonlit.
If it is a partial eclipse, the disk of the moon never gets fully covered - the curved shadow may pass below or above center leaving anywhere from more than half the lighted area showing to a rather narrow sliver.
But if it is a total eclipse, the shadow disk center crosses the center of the moon and all light reflected by the moon from the sun goes away. If observed from a dark area, the moon takes on a dull red glow from the light passing through the thickness of the atmosphere at the edges of the earth and being refracted to hit the moon and reflect back.
As the shadow continues moving, the back edge clears the edge of the moon and abruptly the red becomes much harder to see as the brightness of the full moon grows fuller and fuller.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
The moon is full and very bright.
Along the left edge in northern hemisphere viewing, a dark curved edge starts moving into the bright circle. As time passes, the shadow edge gets bigger and the amount of light coming from the moon gets less as seen in look around what had been moonlit.
If it is a partial eclipse, the disk of the moon never gets fully covered - the curved shadow may pass below or above center leaving anywhere from more than half the lighted area showing to a rather narrow sliver.
But if it is a total eclipse, the shadow disk center crosses the center of the moon and all light reflected by the moon from the sun goes away. If observed from a dark area, the moon takes on a dull red glow from the light passing through the thickness of the atmosphere at the edges of the earth and being refracted to hit the moon and reflect back.
As the shadow continues moving, the back edge clears the edge of the moon and abruptly the red becomes much harder to see as the brightness of the full moon grows fuller and fuller.
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
can you describe a lunar eclipse?
The moon passing through Earth's shadow.
.
See any textbook (or the article in Wikipedia), I can hardly improve upon it.
The moon is in the Earth's shadow.
Yes, I can.