Millions witness total lunar eclipse

Sunday, March 4, 2007 (New Delhi):

Skywatchers watched the first total lunar eclipse in three years, which lasted for six hours and five minutes.The eclipse was visible from Europe, Africa, South America, eastern parts of the US, Canada and also Greenland.The lunar eclipse was clearly visible from Delhi thanks to clear and crisp weather.

I'm excited. I want to know more about the penumbra - fundas about the total lunar eclipse," said Abhishek, class XI student.The astronomers say that the light refracted from the earth gives the moon a copperish hue.Although for the sky gazers it might just be like a beautiful spectacle but for a lot of others it entails a serious subject of study - an attempt to understand what lies beyond the horizon.Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, an uncommon event because the moon spends most of its time either above or below the plane of the Earth's orbit.Sunlight still reaches the moon during total eclipses, but it is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere.