What causes a total lunar eclipse?

Answer 1

Total Lunar EclipseTotal Lunar Eclipse- When the entire Moon passes through Earth's umbral shadow.

Some details:

The moon has no light of its own, it shines by the sunlight that is reflected off its surface.

The Moon orbits the Earth about once every 29.5 days. As it circles our planet, the changing position of the Moon with respect to the Sun causes our natural satellite to cycle through a series of phases:

New Moon > New Crescent > First Quarter > Waxing Gibbous> Full Moon > Waning Gibbous > Last Quarter > Old Crescent > New Moon

An eclipse of the Moon (or lunar eclipse) can only occur at Full Moon, if the Moon passes through some portion of Earth's shadow....

(From- MrEclipse.com- click on link below)

There are three major types of lunar eclipses:

• Penumbral Lunar Eclipse-The Moon passes through Earth's penumbral shadow.

• Partial Lunar Eclips-A portion of the Moon passes through Earth's umbral shadow.

You are in a total lunar eclipse when from your point of view the moon totally blocks out the sun.

Answer 2

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth blocks the sun's rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially covers the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth
A solar eclipse is caused when the moon intercepts the Earth and sun, therefore we only see slight sunlight, if any.

A lunar eclipse is caused when the Earth blocks the sunlight from the moon, making the moon "invisible" to us.
A solar eclipse is caused when the moon comes between the earth and the sun

A lunar eclipse is caused when the earth comes between the moon and the sun.
Solar eclipses occur when the Moon is between the Sun and Earth, with the Moon's shadow falling on the Earth. Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, with the Earth's shadow falling on the Moon.
a solar and lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon, and earth is in a straight line. in a solar eclipse, the order of the 3 is: the sun, the moon, and the earth. in a lunar eclipse, the order is: the sun, the earth, and then the moon. (a way 2 remember is lunar means "moon", and the moon comes last in a lunar eclipse)
is causes it because the earth spins around the axis causing the lunar and solar eclipse ?
Solar eclipses are caused by the moon's shadow when the moon's orbit makes it travel between the earth and the sun - total eclipses are caused by the umbra and partial eclipses by the penumbra of the shadow per se. Lunar eclipses are caused by the earth's shadow when its orbit takes it between the sun and the moon. Naturally, lunar eclipses can best be seen at night and solar eclipses during the day.
Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon gets into Earth's shadow. Solar eclipses occur when the Moon gets in front of the Sun, obscuring it from our view.
a solar eclipse is when the moon coves a part of the sun and a lunar eclipse is when the earth casts a shadow on the moon

Answer 3

A solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up precisely, and the shadow of the Moon hits the Earth. It's like a cloud covering the Sun and causing the sky to get dark, except in this case the cloud is made of stone and is 250,000 miles away.

Eclipses are shadows; that's all. Because the Earth is rotating and the Moon is moving in its orbit, the position of the shadow moves west-to-east across the Earth.