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| Taken in 2010 |
Parts of the world saw a total lunar eclipse. The lunar eclipses will take place roughly every six months for the next two years, known as 'tetrad'.
The start of Tuesday's lunar eclipse marked the second of nine tetrads this century, according to astronomer Fred Espenak. The last tetrad occurred in 2003 and the next is set to take place in 2032. There were five tetrads in the 20th century.
As the Earth positions itself between the sun and the moon, a red hue surrounds the moon due to the indirect sunlight that manages to reach and illuminate it. Sun's light first passes through the Earth's atmosphere, filtering out most of the blue colored light, resulting in the reddish color. Earth's atmosphere can also refract some of the light, causing a small fraction to reach and illuminate the moon, Espenak explains on his website.
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