Blood Red Moon

I took the above photo back in August and have finally gotten around to doing some research to find out why we saw what we saw. We've been getting some strange weather lately, in addition to some striking sunsets and sunrises, too.
It appears that we experienced a lunar eclipse, most likely hyped up by the recent volcanic eruption in Alaska.

A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, there is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse. The next total lunar eclipse occurs on December 21, 2010.

The amount of refracted light depends on the amount of dust or clouds in the atmosphere; this also controls how much light is scattered. In general, the dustier the atmosphere, the more that other wavelengths of light will be removed (compared to red light), leaving the resulting light a deeper red colour. This causes the resulting coppery-red hue of the Moon to vary from one eclipse to the next. Volcanoes are notable for expelling large quantities of dust into the atmosphere, and a large eruption shortly before an eclipse can have a large effect on the resulting colour.

Reports of unusually fiery orange sunsets on Earth and ruby red rings around the planet Venus have popped up on the Internet in the last week.

Some skywatchers suspect that these views are being colored by the dust and gases injected into the atmosphere by the Aug. 7 eruption of Alaska's Kasatochi volcano.

Kasatochi, part of the Aleutian Island chain, sent an ash plume more than 35,000 feet (10,600 meters) into the atmosphere when it erupted last month.

The fine ash injected by a volcanic eruption into the stratosphere can be carried by winds all over the world. Sulfur dioxide spewed from volcanoes
can react in the atmosphere to form sulfate aerosols (aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the air). Both ash and aerosols can scatter the sun's
rays, giving a sunset its apparent color.

Particles in the air normally scatter incoming sunlight — this is why the sky is blue. Sunsets (and sunrises) appear reddish because the sun's rays
have more of the atmosphere to travel through, and only the longer waves at the red end of the spectrum can make it. Sulfate aerosols in particular
can intensify this effect by adding more obstacles for the light to get through.

The sunsets and other phenomena, could indeed be related to the eruption of Kasatochi, as satellites tracking the eruption's aerosol clouds show that they have
spread over the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Sightings and images of unusually colorful sunsets and other atmospheric phenomena were first reported Aug. 27.