The giant dead rock of the night started turning from white to red, as people where left confused with nothing to think of other than being deliberately scared confused to the extent of ignorance mixing with beliefs.
On September 7th 2025, many people had a glance on a rare astrological sight which happens almost thrice a year, the lunar eclipse. We saw the moon turn from white to red this night of September with our naked eyes clearly without a need for a telescope. Its a much joy to watch the lunar eclipse clearly for at least once in a lifetime, for mostly it happens in a case where telescopes are not needed be used unlike the solar eclipse, this was really a blessed one night for all the star gazers, a scientific wonder of course.
And what could be the reason for the moon to turn from white to red annually? Could it be a special sign, or a divine intervention?? or maybe the moon is getting some supernatural powers?? Well, no!
Science has already defined the process underlying this astrological phenomenon. This brilliant astral occurrence comes to sight on the slightest and shortest time possible. A lunar eclipse can only occur when shadows from the earth falls on the moon.
It means for a moon eclipse or lunar eclipse to take place, the sun, earth and moon should be aligned all together in a straight line respectively. Hence, for earth to experience a lunar eclipse the sun should be straightly aligned to the earth giving her light then the moon must be exactly behind the earth at the umbra position where shadows of the earth is very much concentrated, falling on the moon blocking it from the sun and rendering it submissive to emit a reddish appearance on our night sky.
All these processes are learnt from basic school sciences to high school physics. The word umbra is a basic term for first class shadow. When a large source of light is projected towards a relatively sized small ball, the result comes out as shadows seen from behind. If the light is big and bright enough, it creates two shadows, a fairly dark shadow and a totally dark shadow.
The fairly dark shadow can be called a penumbra whilst the completely dark one is called an umbra. These shadows are daily circumstances of happenings in our daily lives, even when walking during the day, its much visible to define the umbra and penumbra based on the knowledge being, the fairly darker one goes for penumbra and the completely dark one goes for umbra.
The typical event witnessed during the night of this day, was a total lunar eclipse, since the moon was completely behind the earth’s umbra. The moon was just literally behind the earth which blocked it from sunlight it has always reflected. So, why didn’t the moon just disappear for its in a shadow after all because the earth shadow blocked it completely.
The moon doesn’t disappear for the reason being that some light from the earth sunrise and sun sets falls on the giant rock of the night. The moon has never been ranked as a source of light or ever shall it happen for it to be ranked there, for it totally depends on a light from a source which it only absorbs and reflects to the surface of the earth. Its a rock mirror in other words with no ability to illuminate itself.
So, the illumination it gets is when its at the backyard of the earth given by sun rays from sunset and sunrise which are orange like red in color.
The sky appears orange like red during sunsets and sunrises mainly because sunlight has to travel through a thicker atmospheric gas molecules, scattering away blue, violet and other shorter light wavelengths. This process leaves light of longer wavelengths, such as red, orange and yellow lights to reach the earth, which is further enhanced by dust particles and water molecules in the atmosphere to bring about an orange-like reddish colour to our sight by the process called Rayleigh scattering.
The moon then harnesses those reddish rays reflected from the earth, absorbs them and reflects them back to earth by changing its colour to red, just like a mirror.
These are inevitable life occurrences which will continue so long as the universe is still alive and the Earth is orbiting the sun. It can never be altered by any means, whatever force it may be.
So, next time, when a lunar eclipse occurs don’t begin rushing up and down saying the world is ending or spreading any form of falsity about this normal event, don’t go and hide in your room thinking your ancestors are annoyed of you, rather come and watch out for yourself a mostly one time joyful astral event which happens luckily thrice a year, don’t ever again begin cursing God in fear of judgement upon seeing a lunar eclipse, relax!
Lunar eclipses are must-watch events during a lifetime. It’s a nice experience to see and understand the universe as a living vessel, alive, working daily as you are.
Some people might not have gotten the chance to watch the lunar eclipse, which happened on the 7th of September 2025, but it doesn’t mean lunar eclipses have stopped happening to this day.
There are lots of lunar eclipses in the future, which you could also share in the joy of the cosmos.
For those who love astrophysics and astronomy as a colloquial term, so long as you are an intimate star gazer, this phenomenon is like a birthday to your passions for more in-depth research and exploration of our vast universe, which is still untouched. This goes directly to science students; the science we do should not remain in books and class lecture halls, science is a practical discipline. The science we do should be a practical science, not a theoretical science that’s only if humanity wants to see advancements in tech and achieve technological breakthroughs.
Strive for personal practical science inclusivity to boost your mental skills, harness the power of artificial intelligence for deep research and always strive to make your own scientific inventions.
Respect, Study and Explore.
Information about author.
Name: Gabriel Patrick Lagu.
School: A student from Kings Academy Digital Secondary School.
Contact: +211 920 427 338
Email: gabrielegf6151997@gmail.com