Why the Moon Looks Red Colour When Eclipses Happen?

At dawn on 16 June 2011 Indonesia local time eclipse the Moon with a duration of about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Interestingly when the peak of the eclipse, the Moon looks very red. What causes the Moon look red? Are there aliens who spread powdered red lipstick in the sky the Moon?

The reason comes from the air we breathe. If Earth had no air, then at the eclipse the Moon, the Earth's shadow on the Moon will appear black. The presence of air in the Earth causes the sun rays can filter through the Earth's atmosphere into the shadow on the moon. This is why the moon appears red during a total eclipse.

But the colors displayed are not always red. Moon eclipse happens can be brown, red, orange or yellow. The color depends on the presence of dust and clouds in Earth's atmosphere. If there has been a major volcanic eruptions, for example, the shadow on the Moon will appear dark in the entire eclipse. In December 1992, shortly after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, there is so much dust in Earth's atmosphere so that the moon was blocked and barely visible.

Then can we know in advance the red Moon will appear during a total eclipse of the moon occur? Not necessarily before the eclipse occurs, before going to a lot of speculation about this, but no one knows for sure how the red moon eclipse will occur when the time comes. Do not wait for the color that appears when the eclipse occurs is a nice thing?