A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth moves exactly between the sun and the moon. That means, lunar eclipses can only happen on full moon nights. The reason why we don't see this often is the fact that the Earth is rarely aligned exactly between sun and moon. But when that happens, the night sky turns into a magical display of darkness and color.
When the moon is fully eclipsed, it turns red, because the white sunlight is refracted by our atmosphere, which acts as a prism, the blue light goes out into space, the red light goes into the shadow and onto the moon. Think of it as sunrise and sunset at the same time. The moon is 16 exposure stops darker than the full moon, but when exposure is increased accordingly, it results in a lovely glowing red moon. The partial shadow is the time when the Earth slowly moves into the center and gradually obscures the moon, and in reverse when it comes back out.
The below images are from eclipses in 2014, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2025. The eclipse in 2024 was a partial, only 5% of the moon was obscured.
2014 Lunar Eclipse Cycle
2015 Lunar Eclipse Cycle
2019 Lunar Eclipse Cycle
