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A total lunar eclipse, commonly called a “blood moon”, will be seen throughout North America overnight Thursday, March 13 to Friday, March 14, with all American states seeing at least part of the spectacle. The event – has not been seen since 2022 and not to its maximum until 2029 from North America – occurs when the Earth’s shadow completely covers the moon, giving it a reddish glow.
During a total lunar eclipse, the moon moves right to left, passing through penumbra and umbra, … [+]
The main facts
Total lunar eclipses occur when the Earth moves directly between the Sun and the Moon, with the moon slowly moving through the shadow of the Earth in space. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are completely safe to see with the naked eye.
The phase of the entirety of this eclipse – when the lunar surface will turn reddish – it will last for 65 minutes, during which the moon will be completely within the Earth’s umbrella shade.
This total lunar eclipse will be relatively shallow eclipse because the moon will not pass directly through the center of the umbrella. On the contrary, it will only enter the northern part of Umbra, making the north side of the moon likely brighter and its southern side is likely to be darker during the whole.
The moon will look a little smaller than on average because it will be near apogeeits most remote point from the ground during each orbit. on apogeeThe moon is about 252,000 miles (405,000 km) away, making it look about 14% smaller than when it is closest to Earth in perigee.
Accurate times for ‘blood moon’ for any US time zone
Observers in the Eastern and Central SH.BA will see the whole in the early hours of the morning, while those in SH.BA, Alaska and Hawaii will experience whole before or only after midnight with local time. Here are the exact times for the whole in any time zone of the US:
- Eastern: 2: 26-3: 32 AM Edt (Friday, March 14)
- Central: 1: 26-2: 32 AM CDT (Friday, March 14)
- Mountain: 12: 26-1: 32 AM MDT (Friday, March 14)
- Pacific: 11:26 PM (Thursday, March 13) – 12:32 AM PDT (Friday, March 14)
- Alaska: 10: 26-11: 32 AKDT Afternoon (Thursday, March 13)
- Hawaii: 8: 26-9: 32 Afternoon HST (Thursday, March 13)
“The moon will closely approximate the sun and the earth, creating a total lunar lunar eclipse for everyone throughout North and South America,” said Franck Marchis, Astronomy of the Seti Institute and co -founder of Unistllar, in an email. “This rare cosmic arrangement is a wonderful memory of our country in the universe – and a perfect opportunity to catch it for offspring.”
Why the moon turns red during a total lunar eclipse
During the phase of the whole of a total lunar eclipse, no direct sunlight can reach the lunar surface. It makes it turn red long. According to Timeanddate.com, this is due to Rayleigh distribution, the same reason the sun appears red. Shortly waveless blue light hits the atoms more easily and scatters into the Earth’s atmosphere, while the red light with longer wavelers travels more easily through the Earth’s atmosphere without striking atoms, and on the lunar surface. The exact shade of red depends on how much powder, water droplets and volcanic ash is in the Earth’s atmosphere.
BACKGROUND
This week’s event will be the best lunar eclipse visible in the US by March 2029. While another total lunar eclipse will occur on September 7, 2025, it will be visible only from Asia, Australia and parts of Europe. During that event, the whole will last for 82 minutes. The other lunar eclipse visible from North America will occur on March 3-4, 2026, but only for observers in Hawaii, Alaska and the western US and Canada regions, where the whole will last for 58 minutes.
Further reading