Last night at about midnight - I walked out in the front yard to see a lunar eclipse. It was a clear cold night and stars were abundant. In the middle of the sky was a very large moon - in the shadow of the earth. It appeared red because some of the sunlight was passing thru the earth's atmosphere.
The moon orbits the earth in an oval shaped orbit called an ellipse. There the moon gets closer and farther from the earth every month. This lunar eclipse occurred during "supermen" when the moon is closest to the earth. The makes the moon appear bigger and brighter than normal. It takes over an hour for the moon to pass through the earth's shadow - so many people get to see it.
Tonight - Monday night - the moon will still be close - so you can see a very bright almost full moon. It will be much brighter so you will see less stars.
The above picture was taken with a hand held iPhone. I was too tired to get out a camera with a bigger lens and tripod for a better picture. When I was younger - I would have been better prepared.
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