--- title: Learn Why 'Blood Moon' Lunar Eclipses Happen description: The next "blood moon" lunar eclipse happens early Wednesday morning. canonical: https://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-07T20:41:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:38:29.163Z article:section: Science og:title: Here's Why the Full Moon Is Sometimes Red og:description: The next "blood moon" lunar eclipse happens early Wednesday morning og:url: https://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9048b3e96d6d343f/69868ab2cd6848ec37094243/lunar-eclipse-2014-blood-moon.gif?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Lunar eclipse 2014 blood moon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why the Full Moon Is Sometimes Red twitter:description: The next "blood moon" lunar eclipse happens early Wednesday morning twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9048b3e96d6d343f/69868ab2cd6848ec37094243/lunar-eclipse-2014-blood-moon.gif?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why the Full Moon Is Sometimes Red by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Oct 7, 2014 8:41 PM UTC  Getty Images (25); Gif by Mia Tramz/TIME by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Oct 7, 2014 8:41 PM UTC Ever wondered why the full moon sometimes appears a dull red? The “blood moon” lunar eclipse happens about twice a year—including early Wednesday morning—when the Sun, Earth and moon line up so that the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, NASA explains in the video above. This causes moon to appear a dull red color due to sunlight scattered through the Earth’s atmosphere. In other words, if you were to watch the eclipse from the moon, you’d see the Earth blocking the Sun, whose rays creep over the curves of the Earth, basking the moon in a red glow. For an up-close, clear shot of Wednesday’s blood moon, tune in to the [SLOOH Community Observatory](http://live.slooh.com/)‘s live stream [here](http://time.com/3475902/watch-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-live/?preview%5Fid=3475902&preview%5Fnonce=5c3811bc28), starting at 5 a.m. ET and likely peaking at around 6:55 a.m. ET. Learn Why 'Blood Moon' Lunar Eclipses Happen ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/"},"headline":"Here's Why the Full Moon Is Sometimes Red","datePublished":"2014-10-07T20:41:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:38:29.163Z","description":"NASA explains how and why the yearly event occurs","url":"https://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/","keywords":["Space","NASA","moon","earth","sun","solar eclipse","red"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9048b3e96d6d343f/69868ab2cd6848ec37094243/lunar-eclipse-2014-blood-moon.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9048b3e96d6d343f/69868ab2cd6848ec37094243/lunar-eclipse-2014-blood-moon.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Lunar eclipse 2014 blood moon","caption":"Lunar eclipse 2014 blood moon","creditText":"Getty Images (25); Gif by Mia Tramz/TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3479189/blood-moon/","name":"Here's Why the Full Moon Is Sometimes Red"}}]}] ```