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

Question

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?

In: 17

Answer 1

There are usually around three consecutive nights where the moon looks full. It’s just because it’s hard to see the difference between completely full and close to full. The sun (being very large) lights a little more than half the moon and one person (from a single point of view) sees a little less than half of the moon.