Last night there was a lunar eclipse but the night before and tonight it is almost a full moon, how does that work?

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I understand there are normal phases where the moon is partially covered by the Earth’s shadow, how can it be completely covered one night and full the nights before and after? What happens during an eclipse where the moon can go through all the phases in a few hours, and then go back to full tonight and normal decreasing/increasing phases each night?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

>I understand there are normal phases where the moon is partially covered by the Earth’s shadow

That’s incorrect. The moon’s normal phases are not due to Earth’s shadow. The moon’s phases happen because the sun illuminates half of the moon and how much of that illuminated half we see depends on which side of it we’re on. [Here’s a blog post that explains it with a diagram](https://alex.strinka.net/blog/why-does-the-moon-have-phases.html).

A lunar eclipse can *only* happen during a full moon, because that’s when the Earth is directly between the moon and the sun. [Here’s another blog post that explains that.](https://alex.strinka.net/blog/eclipses.html)

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