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The great thing about a lunar eclipse is that you don't
need special equipment,

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and you don't need to be
in a particular location.

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Everybody in the United States
is going to be able to see this.

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They just need to go outside
and locate the Moon.

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So a total lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, the Earth,

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and the Moon are aligned.

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The Moon goes around
the Earth once a month, 
but we don't get an eclipse

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every month because the
Moon's orbit is a little bit tilted.

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We get that alignment
about every six months.

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And so the Earth's shadow stretches across

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240,000 miles and
lands on the Moon.

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Eclipses don't happen 
every month because
the Moon's orbit is tilted

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by about five degrees.

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And so some months 
during the full Moon, it's 
going to pass a little bit

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above the Earth's shadow.

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And some months it's going to pass a little bit below. About once

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every six months, it
actually passes through
the Earth's shadow.

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Now it doesn't hit the middle
of that shadow every time.

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So some lunar eclipses
are just partial.

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But every year or year and a half,
we get a total lunar eclipse

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where the Moon passes through the center of the Earth's shadow,

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and every part of the Moon
is blocked from the Sun.

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The best thing about a lunar eclipse is that it's beautiful.

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So the Moon during totality
will turn shades of orange
and red and brown.

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It's being hit by all of
the sunrises and sunsets
projected from the Earth.