Lunar eclipses in all their glory

The volcano Teide is pictured on December 21, 2010 during a total lunar eclipse, in the National Park of Teide on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife.

A picture taken in Manassas, Virginia shows the moon as the total eclipse reaches its peak. During the eclipse, the Earth aligns between the full moon and the sun, covering the lunar surface in shadow.

The sky goes dark over the statue of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Wuhan, Hubei province.

This combination of pictures shows the moon during a circle of a total eclipse as seen from Silver Spring, Maryland.

A picture taken in Caracas, Venezuela shows the moon during a total eclipse.

A girl views a total lunar eclipse at the Zocalo Square on 20 February 2008 in Mexico City. The Moon turned an eerie shade of red for people in the western hemisphere, recreating the eclipse that saved Christopher Columbus more than five centuries ago. In a lunar eclipse, the Sun, Earth and Moon are directly aligned and the Moon swings into the cone of shadow cast by the Earth. Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, Columbus and his explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies. Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realised that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504. He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night. The warning, of course, came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon -- which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.

A double expousure picture shows the moon and the monument of The Savior of The World during a total lunar eclipse as seen from San Salvador, El Salvador.

The moon appears red during a total lunar eclipse from Mexico City.