Watch Yesterday’s Spectacular Lunar Eclipse

William Castleman made a beautiful time lapse of yesterday’s Winter Solstice lunar eclipse, which was truly spectacular. If you missed it, you are going to love it. And if you watched it, you are going to love it anyway.

Why did the moon turn red?

It’s not the colour of the sun. What you are seeing is the colour of every sunrise and sunset on Earth’s skies. As the Earth casts its shadows and the sun’s light hits all around Earth’s limb, the atmosphere glows red. That’s red glow – which you can’t see in a normal day – illuminates the surface of the moon, engulfed into Earth’s shadow.

According to NASA, “the exact colour depends on what’s floating around in Earth’s atmosphere. Following a volcanic eruption, for instance, dust and ash can turn global sunsets vivid red. The moon would glow vivid red, too. Lots of clouds, on the other hand, extinguish sunsets, leading to darker, dimmer eclipses.”

So no, the moon didn’t became as blood because the Apocalypse, there weren’t any human sacrifices, and dogs and cats are not living together. Yet.