The moon passed into Earth’s shadow at about 7:52 p.m. Wednesday, creating a full lunar eclipse that could be seen around the world, weather permitting. Cloudy skies kept many Santa Barbarans from getting the full picture but Noozhawk’s Lou Fontana had a shot and took it out at Coal Oil Point.
Eclipses of these sort occur when the moon, Earth and sun are in perfect alignment during a full moon. The moon moves into Earth’s umbral shadow and our planet blocks the sun’s reflection off the moon.
Unlike a solar eclipse, a full lunar eclipse is visible to the entire moon-facing side of Earth. After three full lunar eclipses in less than a year, the next eclipse won’t occur until 2010.