Lunar eclipse with a murky red moon on Aug 16, 17

{image-lunar eclipse_15082008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Mumbai, Aug 15: A lunar eclipse with a murky red full moon can be seen on August 16 and 17, Nehru Planetarium Director Piyush Pandey said.

During a lunar eclipse, Moon comes in the shadow of the Earth. But the shadow cast by the solid earth should be completely black. If some sunlight gets filtered through the atmospheric envelope around it, then it contaminates the Earth's shadow. This will happen during the two eclipses, he said here on Thursday, Aug 14. ''When passing through the atmosphere the light gets scattered by gas and dust molecules. Scattering is a selective process and wavelength dependent. The blue light is scattered the most and red remains largely unaffected. Therefore in the day the sky is blue, while it is red during the night,'' he added.

UNI