Weather Classroom: Eclipses

Updated: 6:44 PM PST December 14, 2020 SPOKANE, Wash. — Eclipses are my favorite astronomical phenomenon! The relationship between the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon creates these wonderful displays when the shadow of one falls on the other. For the lunar eclipse, it's when the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon. For the solar eclipse it's the other way around. Think of it this way, the Moon "disappears" during a lunar eclipse, and the Sun "disappears" during a solar eclipse.  But there are different types of both lunar and solar eclipses. On the lunar side, the total lunar eclipse is when the moon crosses completely through the Earth's shadow. During this time, the refracted sunlight that passes through Earth's atmosphere still falls on the moon, creating the reddish hue.