I was confused about how different was a lunar eclipse from a new moon night. I started digging in on the internet to find the answer and some more questions emerged from the research, leaving me puzzled at the end of it all. I post here some of the questions and the link to a fairly explanatory (and geeky) article that has a lot more details if you are interested.

Q: How is a lunar eclipse different from a new moon night?
A: To put it simply, lunar eclipse is caused by the shadow of earth falling on moon (it happens when the earth comes in line between the sun and the moon) and eclipsing it while a new moon is caused by moon’s own shadow on itself (the surface that is visible from earth does not receive any sunlight).

Q: Why doesn’t lunar eclipse occur every month?
A: To quote:

The Moon’s orbit is tilted by 5 degrees with respect to the Earth’s orbital plane (the ecliptic). In order for an eclipse to occur, the Moon must be in the ecliptic plane AND exactly at the new or full phase. Usually, the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane at another phase instead of exactly at new or full phase during its approximately month-long orbit around the Earth.

Q: Does a full moon night occur on all places on the globe on the same day?
A: Yes.

For practical purposes, phases of the Moon and the percent of the Moon illuminated are independent of the location on the Earth from where the Moon is observed. That is, all the phases occur at the same time regardless of the observer’s position