Skywatchers in Europe, Africa, Middle East and most of western Asia were both exasperated and excited at the first lunar eclipse of the third millennium as moon got tinged in red and hid itself Tuesday night. As the earth moved between sun and the moon, it was an almost eerie sight on the sky and in a little over an hour, the shadow was total. Then it started reversing and the show lasted three hours in all. Eager astronomers set up telescopes, hoping for a glimpse of a blood-red moon. This phenomenon occurs because at umbra, or full shadow, the earth's atmosphere refracts the light from the sun, filtering out all sunlight colours except for those tints in the orange and red parts of the spectrum.

The depth of colour depends mainly on the state of dust pollution in the upper atmosphere caused by volcanic eruptions. Bureau Report