Time-Lapse: Blood Moon Over the National Mall

Oct. 8, 2014 - The moon disappeared for the second time in 2014 in a total eclipse seen early Wednesday morning in the Americas, India, and Central Asia. Dubbed the "blood moon," it acquires its reddish hue as sunlight bends through the Earth's atmospheric dust. In this time-lapse video, the blood moon passes over the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Dedicated joggers and diehard sky-watchers across much of North America enjoyed a total lunar eclipse early this morning. In the U.S. capital the eclipse, also referred to as a blood moon, turned the ghostly orb a dusky orange before the rising sun obliterated the view.

The total eclipse was the second in a series of four that began in April and will end next September. Such consecutive total eclipses, known as a tetrad, are relatively rare. Only seven more will happen in this century.

Those who miss the current tetrad will have to wait about 20 years for the next one.

The event was special enough to Gustavo Shong and Olesia Kavulych of Springfield, Virginia, that it got them out of

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