Total lunar eclipse delivers promised "Blood Moon"
A total lunar eclipse turned the moon a reddish hue early Tuesday morning, drawing crowds into the night air across the country.
The "Blood Moon" effect peaked between the hours of 3 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Eastern, and the cosmic color change was perfectly placed for most viewers in North and South America -- at least those fortunate enough to have dodged cloud cover.
The start of Tuesday's lunar eclipse marked the second of nine tetrads this century, according to astronomer Fred Espenak. The last tetrad occurred in 2003 and the next is set to take place in 2032. There were five tetrads in the 20th century.
As the Earth positions itself between the sun and the moon, a reddish hue surrounds the moon due to the indirect sunlight that manages to reach and illuminate it. Sunlight first passes through the Earth's atmosphere, filtering out most of the blue colored light, resulting in the reddish color. Earth's atmosphere can also refract some of the light, causing a small fraction to reach and illuminate the moon, Espenak explains on his website.
No part of the eclipse was visible from Europe, most of Africa, the Middle East or most of Asia.
Michael Roppolo contributed to this report