An Eclipse Double

March this year sees a total eclipse of the Moon followed by a partial eclipse of the Sun.

The Lunar eclipse takes place on Friday, March 14th.

In the early hours, the Blood Moon will appear.

The Solar eclipse is a fortnight later, on Saturday March 29th.

We’ll look at the Lunar event here.

In our next blog we’ll preview the Solar eclipse.

Total Eclipse of the Moon

A Lunar eclipse can often give us a splendid ‘Blood Moon’.

In the shadow of Earth, the Moon goes blood red in colour.

That dark red Moon will appear in our sky on March 14th.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the event takes place in the early hours before dawn.

Times

On 14th March, the Earth’s shadow will first touch the Moon at 03.57am.

It will exit the Moon’s disc at 10.00am, in daylight.

The Moon’s disc will be fully obscured at around 06.30am.

That’s about the time the moon sets.

So the Moon will be low in the sky during the eclipse.

You’ll need a clear sky and a low western horizon to see the ‘Blood Moon’.

The Astronomy

A total Lunar eclipse happens when the full Moon moves into the shadow of our Earth.

A full Moon occurs every 28 days but eclipses are much less common.

That’s because the Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly tilted.

Only when the Moon’s orbit crosses ours can we see a lunar eclipse.

They usually happen twice a year.

What to see

Before 4am the Moon will be full and bright.

As the minutes tick by, a dark shadow will begin to cross the Moon.

Partial Lunar eclipse: NASA

By Moonset, the Moon will be fully in the Earth shadow.

Lunar Eclipse: NASA

The Moon should now go completely dark.

Instead it turns that blood red colour.

That’s because some sunlight is bent around our planet.

Red light is refracted most so the Moon turns red .

Lunar eclipse seen from the Moon: NASA

More than an eclipse

An eclipse of the Moon has wider significance in astronomy.

To see why, please look at our previous blog Eclipses and exoplanets.

And here comes another!

We will see another total eclipse of the Moon later in the year.

On the evening of September 7th, the Moon will again move into the Earth’s shadow.

And again the Moon will be setting as the eclipse happens.

But it’s at a much more social hour than the eclipse in March.

So 2025 gives us two opportunities to see a  Blood Moon.

You can see more information at eclipses near you at Time and Date.

We’ve been there!

A final thought.

As you look at the Moon, you may just remind yourself that humans have been there.

It is now alnost 53 years since our last landing on the Moon.

Now, at last, there are prospects that we’ll return soon.

We’ll keep you in touch with the Artemis project in our Wonderdome blogs.

The author: Dennis Ashton is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Wonderdome presenter.

In 2024, Dennis received the Special Contribution award from the British Association of Planetaria.

Wonderdome now has 14 presenters, making us the largest – and best – mobile planetarium organisation in the UK.

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