As the moon reflects the sun's light, the shadow dims the moon's glow. During the peak of a total lunar eclipse, the moon takes on a bit of a reddish hue as any leftover sunlight making it to the moon's surface is scattered by our earth's atmosphere.

When sunlight hits Earth’s atmosphere during a lunar eclipse, light frequencies toward the blue end of the visible spectrum are scattered outward, away from Earth’s umbra, but those with longer wavelengths, toward the red part of the spectrum, are bent inward and cast onto the moon.

Those who glance up at the sky tonight will have an opportunity to catch the March 2025 "Blood Moon," a phenomenon that colors the full moon in shades of red, orange and yellow during a total lunar eclipse.