Total Lunar Eclipse March 2025: What’s That Red Moon in the Sky?
Mind Bending | January 28, 2025
By Dr. Teri Gee, Barlow Planetarium Director
Coming up on March 14, 2025 if you stay up very late that night, you will have a chance to see the Moon turn red!
The last time this happened (at least when we could see it here in Wisconsin) was at the end of 2022. So it’s been a while.
But why is the Moon turning red? The Moon does sometimes appear to change color due to dust or smoke in the atmosphere, but that’s not why it’s turning red this time. This time, it’s because there is going to be a total lunar eclipse!
Now, you may remember that last year we had a total solar eclipse in April and it was amazing! A total lunar eclipse is a completely different experience, and why it happens is basically the opposite of why a solar eclipse happens.
Total Solar Eclipses happen during the New Moon phase
A total solar eclipse happens during the New Moon phase when the teeny tiny Moon is in the exact right place between the Earth and the Sun. This alignment is difficult to achieve because of the difference in the size of the Moon and the Sun. You have to be in the exact right spot to see it.
However, when a lunar eclipse happens during the Full Moon phase, the Earth gets between the Sun and the Moon and, because the Earth is bigger than the Moon, if you can see the Moon, you can see the eclipse. But why doesn’t this happen every month? Well, the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted and so the alignment doesn’t happen every time.
Why the Moon Turns Red
The last part of this is why the Moon turns red and doesn’t go dark like the Sun does. This is because of the Earth’s atmosphere! The Moon shines with reflected light from the Sun. When the Moon is behind the Earth, the light from the much bigger Sun passes through the atmosphere and gets bent (this is called refraction). The blue light gets bent away from the Earth while the red light gets bent around the Earth. Then, it hits the Moon and reflects off of the Moon just like it does normally, but we only get red light! (Check out the diagram!)
Cool, right?
Total Lunar Eclipse on March 14, 2025
So on the night of March 14, if you can stay up really late (and it’s not cloudy!), you can have the chance to see this amazing event! The penumbral eclipse starts at 10:57 p.m. and this phase doesn’t look very impressive. The Moon just appears to get a little bit dimmer. At 12:09 a.m. (yes, after midnight), the umbral phase or partial eclipse phase begins. The total lunar eclipse doesn’t start until 1:26 a.m. The maximum eclipse will be at 1:58 a.m. and the full eclipse will end at 2:31 a.m. So this is really late (or really early depending on your point of view).
