what conditions are needed to produce a total lunar eclipse?

Question

astronomy class

Answer 1

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is on the far side of the earth (from the sun) and earth blocks all the rays from the sun that would normally shine on it. This means that minutes before and after the eclipse the moon will be full.

The reason this happens is because the orbit of the moon around the earth, and the earth around the sun are not in the same plane. If they did there would be a total lunar eclipse during every full moon. So the total lunar eclipse occurs during a full moon when the earths orbit and the moons orbit line up just right for the sun to be blocked from reaching the moon.