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The Earth passed between the moon and the sun yesterday, giving people a brilliant rusty orange lunar light show from the ground and the web.

The 100-minute total lunar eclipse on June 16 was the longest in more than a decade. The last similarly lengthy lunar eclipse was in 2000, and it painted the moon red for 107 minutes. The next drawn-out eclipse won’t happen again until 2018 (it will be 103 minutes).

Unlike total solar eclipses — where the moon entirely yet briefly blocks out the sun — total lunar eclipses are relatively common. They happen more frequently because the moon is one-third smaller than our planet and more easily fits into Earth’s big umbral shadow (see below).

If you completely missed yesterday’s show, don’t worry. We took readers’ photos and suggestions of images on the web and pooled our favorites into this gallery.

For the next on-the-ground look, however, you’ll have to wait until December 10, 2011 (pdf). A 51-minute-long total solar eclipse then will give islands in the Pacific the best view, but parts of North America, Europe, East Africa, Asia and Australia will get a partial glimpse. (NASA has great details for the upcoming eclipse, plus others in the near future.)

Image: Chart showing how the moon fits into Earth’s shadow (the umbra is the darkest portion). (SockPuppetForTomruen/Wikimedia Commons)

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