lunar eclipse this weekend

Feast your eyes on the moon saturday night as it will be passing through the shadow of the Earth, a truly enjoyable astronomical event. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lines up in between the sun and the moon. The moon passes through the shadow of the Earth and takes on a palette of red colors. The red coloring is from sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere, just like a sunset generally looks reddish orange. The eclipse will be best seen from the eastern United States, beginning a little bit after sunset and lasting for a couple hours. Unfortunately, we western state types will not see any of the eclipse. The consolation is that a second lunar eclipse this year occurs on August 27th, and the western United States will be the prime viewing region.