Lunar Eclipse; Blood Red?

As you probably know, I am fascinated by the moon. So, when I read that Sunday, May 15, a total lunar eclipse would occur, I decided to watch. Although the message said the Super Flower Blood Moon Eclipse would be visible on the east coast if the sky was clear, I thought I might be able to see at least a partial eclipse. Saturday disappointed me; the sky was cloudy! However, Sunday night I could see the nearly full moon.

Even in Colorado, the eclipse seemed to be total. When the moon was entirely in the earth’s shadow, it looked grayish red. The reddish color is caused by the refraction, or bending of light. The moon is 225,000 miles away, but telescopes can capture the red color as well as the dark spots on the moon’s surface.

However, as I observed Sunday’s eclipse, I remembered other blood moon eclipses as being much brighter red, or maybe even red-orange. I searched through my photos, and I found a few of a bright red moon. My photo gallery is not well organized, I confess; but the photos were in a file from 2013. The one in question had a date of September, 2011. The reason I question the date is that the blood moons that caused so much consternation were from April 15, 2014 through September 20, 2015. People prophesized impending doom. In my opinion, that hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps after the next blood moon in 2025