If you live east of the Rocky Mountains, forget about the winter weather and take a few minutes to step outside before you go to bed this Wednesday night. Provided the sky is clear, you'll be treated to a total lunar eclipse about 9 pm Central. Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon. Although you'd think the Moon would disappear during an eclipse--just like the dark portion of a crescent Moon--the disk actually turns a shade of red or bronze instead. Even though the Moon is in the shadow of Earth, some sunlight can bend through the Earth's atmosphere and reach the Moon's highly reflective surface. And since our atmosphere tends to scatter blue light (that's why the sky looks blue during the day), the light reaching the Moon will cast it an eerie red.

Supposedly one of these lunar eclipses got Christopher Columbus out of trouble once. 

The "totality" of Wednesday's eclipse will begin at 9:00 pm Central Standard Time (about 10 pm EST) and last for 50 minutes. A partial eclipse will begin around 7:45, but will not be very noticeable until totality approaches. The total eclipse will be visible to most people in the western hemisphere, but not west of the continental divide. (Sorry Californians)

Mr. Eclipse, who has a splendid page about lunar eclipses here, will no doubt be outside on Wednesday taking more of his remarkable photos. If you plan to take pictures yourself, read his photography tips.

The British Astronomical Association also has an excellent page of lunar eclipse photography.