Blood moon 2025: How to see the moon turn red over North America during March’s total lunar eclipse

Blood moon 2025: How to see the moon turn red over North America during March’s total lunar eclipse

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A picture of an overall lunar eclipse, or “blood moon”, over Tokyo in 2022.
( Image credit: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO through Getty Images)

An overall lunar eclipse is pertaining to Earth for the very first time because 2022. On the night of March 13-14, 2025, The United States And Canada and South America will get a terrific view of all stages of what is typically called a “blood moon.”

Throughout the overall lunar eclipse, which will last about 5 hours, the complete moon will take a trip through Earth’s shadow and handle a striking reddish shade for 65 minutes. Unlike a overall solar eclipsewhich can be seen just from within a narrow course of totality, an overall lunar eclipse shows up from anywhere in the world’s night side. Overnight on March 13-14, that will consist of all North American time zones, consisting of Alaska and Hawaii. Observers in Western Europe will see the moon set while still eclipsed, while in Australia and New Zealand, it will increase currently in totality. (Totality describes the duration when a celestial things is totally eclipsed, as seen from Earth.)

An overall lunar eclipse takes place when Earth is placed straight in between the sun and a moon, triggering the world’s darkest shadow, its umbra, to cover the lunar surface area. The moon reddens due to the fact that the only light reaching it is sunshine refracted through Earth’s environment, which strains much shorter wavelengths and leaves just long-wavelength, reddish colors. The physics resembles what takes place throughout dawn and sundown.

Related: Why is the sky blue?

“Blood moon”: Phases of a lunar eclipse

The lunar eclipse will take place in 5 phases in between 11:57 p.m. and 6 a.m. EDT (03:57 to 10:00 UTC), according to Timeanddate.comThe very first phase starts when the moon moves into Earth’s fuzzy external shadow, its penumbra, and loses its brightness. It then goes into the umbra, and slowly turns reddish as the line of Earth’s shadow crosses the moon.

Totality is the stage you do not wish to miss out on– when the whole lunar surface area will appear reddish, ending up being a real “blood moon.” Halfway through that 65-minute duration, the occasion begins to run in reverse, with the moon slowly slipping out of Earth’s umbra, then penumbra, before lastly going back to its routine intense, white-gray color.

The very first overall lunar eclipse considering that 2022 will be seen throughout North and South America. (Image credit: Laurie LaPorte by means of Getty Images)

For those in eastern locations of North America, the preliminary partial stage of the eclipse will start at 1:09 a.m. EDT on March 14, with totality lasting from 2:26 a.m. to 3:32 a.m. EDTOn the West Coast, the partial stage begins at 10:09 p.m. PDT on March 13, with totality taking place from 11:26 p.m. to 12:32 a.m. PDT on March 14. Since lunar eclipses are worldwide occasions that take place at the exact same minute worldwide, these distinctions are simply due to time zones.

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You can see the whole lunar eclipse with the naked eye, however a great yard telescope or a great set of stargazing field glasses might assist you much better value the motion of Earth’s shadow throughout the moon and can expose the eclipse playing out throughout particular lunar structures, like big craters.

If you miss out on March’s overall lunar eclipse, there is another to eagerly anticipate in 2025, though North Americans will be mainly neglected. The following overall lunar eclipse will happen over night on Sept. 7-8 and will be finest observed in Asia.


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Jamie Carter is an independent reporter and routine Live Science factor based in Cardiff, U.K. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and lectures on astronomy and the natural world. Jamie frequently composes for Space.com, TechRadar.com, Forbes Science, BBC Wildlife publication and Scientific American, and numerous others. He modifies WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.

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