The Moon has a reddish tint during a total ______eclipse.

• A. Solar
• B. Lunar
• C. Annular
• D. Partial

Answer: (B)

During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon appears reddish because Earth sits between the Sun and the Moon, so sunlight reaching the Moon must pass through Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere scatters away much of the blue light and bends red light around the planet, sending this reddened light onto the Moon. That filtered, longer-wavelength light gives the Moon its distinctive reddish or coppery hue, sometimes called a blood Moon. This color effect doesn’t occur during solar eclipses, where the Moon blocks the Sun from our viewpoint on Earth, nor during annular or partial eclipses, where the alignment or distance doesn’t filter sunlight onto the Moon in the same way.