What is a lunar eclipse like?, what would it feel like re-entering earths atmosphere?

Question

What is a lunar eclipse like?, what would it feel like re-entering earths atmosphere?

Answer 1

A lunar eclipse is neat, though a bit anti-climatic.  You watch a circular shadow cover the moon and then uncover it.  There is a little bit of coloring from the earth's atmosphere and that's about it.  

Reentry from space actually exerts more G forces than liftoff.  The reason for that is because your deceleration occurs in a smaller time frame than lift off because you only slow down in the atmosphere.  You also reenter quite a bit faster than you leave the atmosphere.  It would probably be a bumpy ride with lots of orange flame out the windows.  In the space shuttle reentry lasts about 30 minutes to touchdown.

Answer 2

During a lunar eclipse, a shadow passes across the moon, when it's almost completely overshadowed by the earth, the moon turn a copper or red color (often referred to as a "blood moon").  When the earth is completely between the moon and the sun, the moon is completely dark.  You can still make out the outline if you look hard enough, but it's a little difficult.  Also, it's much easier to see the stars that would otherwise be too dim to be seen when covered by the bright reflection off the moon.  This website has a good description and a picture: http://starryskies.com/The_sky/events/lu...

Here's a good picture chart: http://spacsun.rice.edu/~has/images/RB_L...

As for the second question, re-entering the earth's atmosphere in a space shuttle, since there wouldn't really be any other way you could re-enter it without burning to death, would be very rough and very hot.  The shuttle must be going at a very high speed to escape it's orbit around the earth.  The roughness of the ride would come from the friction that would occur due to the high speed and the atmosphere the shuttle would have to go through.  Also, you would have several G's pushing back at you, again from the speed of re-entry.  I hope this answers your question!

Answer 3

A lunar eclipse is when the moon passes in the shadow of the earth.  Basically it turns the moon to a dark copper glow.

The first thing you notice when you reenter the earth's atmosphere is the black space outside your window suddenly becomes a pink glow.  A few seconds later it changes to blue and green and yellow and all sorts of colors as the heat shield interacts with the various chemicals in the atmosphere. You feel like the heatshield is burning up, but it really isn't.  The ride starts getting bumpy (not nearly as bumpy as liftoff though), and gravity slowly begins pulling down all the loose stuff you forgot to put away before reentry.  When the glowing stops, you see the same beautiful blue sky you've seen all you life and you know you're home.