After a long ‘eclipse drought,’ lunar totality once again spans the Americas.
The end is in sight. If skies are clear, North and South America will witness a fine total lunar eclipse early Friday morning, March 14th. This is the first eclipse of 2025, and the first total lunar eclipse for the hemisphere since November 2022.
Eclipses occur when the nodes where the Moon’s orbit intersects the ecliptic plane align with the Sun, Earth and Moon, in what’s known as a syzygy. These happen in eclipse season cycles, book-ended by two eclipses, one lunar and one solar. This first season of 2025 concludes with a deep partial (almost total) solar eclipse for the North Atlantic on March 29th.
There can be up to seven eclipses in one year if seasons overlap, as happened in 1982 and 2038. Four (two each lunar and solar) are the minimum number of eclipses that can transpire in one year, as happens in 2025. The last season of the year features a total lunar eclipse for Europe, Africa, and Asia on September 7th, and another partial solar eclipse rounding out the year on September 21st for New Zealand and the South Pacific.
The circumstances for the March 14th total lunar eclipse. Credit: NASA/GSFC
This also sets us up for an ‘almost tetrad’ of four total lunar eclipses over 2025-2026; only the deep partial on August 28th, 2026 breaks the cadence, preceded by the March 3rd, 2026 total lunar eclipse. We had full tetrad occur in 2014-2015.
Visibility For Friday Morning’s Blood Moon
Unlike the frenzied totality of a total solar eclipse, lunars are more leisurely affairs. Friday’s lunar eclipse sees the Moon cross the dark inner umbral shadow of the Earth in just over 65 minutes time. Totality is centered on 6:59 Universal Time (UT), which translates to just before 3AM Eastern Daylight Saving Time(EDT). Keep in mind, most of North America shifts forward to Daylight Saving Time on the Sunday prior (March 9th) while Europe stays on Standard Time until March 30th.
Though to penumbral phase of the eclipse starts at 3:57 UT(just after local midnight U.S. Eastern Time), don’t expect to see much more than a tea-colored shading on the SE limb of the Moon about 30 minutes later. Would you happen to notice that anything was amiss with the Moon at a casual glance?
The real action begins around U1, or first contact with the dark umbral shadow of the Earth at 5:09UT/1:09AM EDT. You’ll start to see the ragged edge of our planet’s shadow, slowly obscuring the Moon. There’s the curve of our planet, visual proof that the world is indeed round.
The sky circumstances at mid-eclipse. Credit: Stellarium.
The Americas see the eclipse in its entirety. Europe and western Africa sees the eclipse at moonset/sunrise, while Australia, New Zealand and northeastern Asia see the rising Moon eclipsed at sunset. Not only is this a good chance to nab the eclipsed Moon with foreground scenery, you might just see a selenelion as totality lingers briefly post sunrise.
Remember, you don’t need crystal clear skies or optical aid to watch a total lunar eclipse; just a working set of ‘Mark-1 eyeballs,’ and a good view of the Moon. Of course, the ruddy hue of the ‘Blood Moon’ is key feature to watch out for at the climax of totality. This is where the ‘personality’ of a total lunar eclipse really comes out, as not all lunar totalities look the same. The tone and color depends on the amount of suspended ash, dust and aerosols aloft high in the Earth’s atmosphere, making the Moon take on anything from a bright cherry red appearance, to a sludgy-dark hue. The color of the eclipsed Moon is expressed as the Danjon number… how does the eclipse appear to you, versus eclipses in the past?
Friday’s totality as seen from the Moon and Blue Ghost’s landing site. Credit: Stellarium.
Finally, two recent missions landed on the Moon and are on hand to spot the eclipse from an enviable locale: the lunar surface. This will transpire as a total solar eclipse for Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, and Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C lander Athena (if it can be recovered). Though NASA’s Surveyor 3 mission witnessed such a spectacle on April 24th, 1967, the quality was a bit lacking due to the technology of the day. Hopefully, these two missions will show us what human eyes have yet to witness: solar totality from the Moon.
Other missions see ‘eclipses’ as well… including New Horizons on its 2015 Pluto flyby (right) and the late LADEE orbiter from its perch in low lunar orbit. Credit: NASA
Eclipses definitely highlight our special place in time and space. If skies are reasonably clear, don’t miss out on Friday’s dramatic total lunar eclipse.
Surveyor 3’s view of a total solar eclipse from the surface of the Moon. credit: NASA.
-Be sure to catch the eclipse live, courtesy of astronomer Gianluca Masi and the Virtual Telescope project.
