Blood Moon Eclipse

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Moonies geeked out across the valley Thursday night, texting each other to stay awake and share the mystical experience of the lunar eclipse that turned the moon crimson in the early hours of Friday. South valley resident Salena Ortiz used her Galaxy 24 with time lapsed settings to track the path, and captured the perfect moment of totality. A “Blood Moon” is a celestial event that occurs when the Earth moves directly between the Sun and the Moon, causing Earth’s shadow to fall across the lunar surface. Unlike a solar eclipse, this phenomenon is safely visible to the naked eye and can be seen from anywhere on the nighttime side of Earth. The red color appears because sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere is filtered and bent — a process called atmospheric scattering — which removes the shorter blue wavelengths and allows longer red and orange wavelengths to reach the Moon. This filtered light gently illuminates the Moon even while it’s in shadow, creating the deep copper or crimson hue that gives the “Blood Moon” its name. This is the same reason sunsets and sunrises appear red or orange. Photo Credit: Salena Ortiz