Start of total lunar eclipse, July 2018. Image 1 of 4. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon. At totality, the light from the Moon (sunlight reflected from the Moon after passing through the Earth's atmosphere) turns orange due to shorter wavelengths, such as blue light, being scattered more in Earth's atmosphere than longer wavelengths, such as red light. This eclipse took around 4 hours, with totality lasting for 1 hour and 43 minutes. Photographed on 27 July 2018, from Namibia. For the full set of images in this sequences, see C045/6481 to C045/6484. For the eclipse near totality, with an orange Moon, see images C045/6485 to C045/6488.