So if the moon looks red to you when you look outside in the early hours of tomorrow morning, it's not your imagination. We're actually going to get to experience a total lunar eclipse. And here to tell us more about what to expect is Dr. Michelle Thaller from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Thanks for joining us. Great to be here. Thank you. So tell us what happens during an eclipse? Yes, well, when you see the moon shining in the night sky, you're actually seeing reflected sunlight. And tonight everything is going to be lined up perfectly so that the moon is going to pass through the shadow of the earth, and that will block the sunlight. So what you will see is this curved shadow moving across the full moon. And during the deepest part of the eclipse, the moon will actually look red. It's a beautiful thing. Now the reason that happens, that the only sunlight reaching the moon, is light that's being scattered through the atmosphere of the earth. And the earth's atmosphere scatters away blue light, but lets red light through in a much more direct manner. It's actually the reason a sunrise or a sunset looks red to us. That red light is bouncing off the moon. So what do we need to do to see this eclipse tomorrow? We know the wonderful thing about a lunar eclipse is you don't need anything special. You don't need a telescope or eclipse glasses. Just go outside and find the full moon. And if you're on the east coast, it will begin around 2 a.m. You'll see the shadow pass out across the moon. And then the deepest reddest part will be about 3.45 a.m. So I'm going to set my alarm clock for about 3 a.m. Get a cup of coffee and sit back for a beautiful free celestial show. Now, tell us, will this eclipse affect any NASA spacecraft? Yes, actually it does. Our spacecraft around the moon use solar batteries. They need solar panels and sunlight. So the eclipse will block the sunlight, meaning the batteries will run down. And of course, we at NASA are aware of this. We prepared for this. We're going to be monitoring the health of LRO, the lunar reconnaissance orbiter, which is currently orbiting the moon, taking wonderful pictures. And exactly how the batteries respond to this darkness will even help us design better batteries in the future. Tell us, what are some of the things we're learning about the moon from the spacecrafts that are orbiting it? Well, the moon seems so familiar to us, but it turns out there's a lot to learn about its past, its evolution over time. LRO is returning gorgeous images of the entire surface of the moon. And to me, they almost look like art. You can see all of the craters and the mountains. The scale of the moon is something that really impresses me. This is a crater called Ticocrader. And in the middle of the crater, there's a mountain. And if you look at this close up of that mountain, there's this sort of a lit up by the sun. There's a boulder right at the top of that mountain. But that boulder, it looks small. It's actually the size of a football stadium. So there are these gorgeous tall mountains, dramatic landscapes. We're also learning that there's more frozen water ice underneath the soil of the moon than we expected. And we've recorded the coldest temperature ever seen in the solar system at the South Pole of the Moon. And where can we learn more about the moon and also this eclipse? Well, definitely go to our website, NASA.gov slash LRO for lunar reconnaissance orbiter. And there you can see all of these beautiful images. You can learn more about when to view the eclipse. And find out more about all the different things we're learning about the moon. Dr. Thalla, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.