A dark smudge starts moving across the face of the full Moon. After an hour, the eastern side of the Moon takes on an eerie, reddish hue. Then the entire Moon glows dusky red, as the sky darkens, and faint stars appear. What’s happening? You’re experiencing a total lunar eclipse!
On the night of March 13 to 14, the Moon will move through Earth’s shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse that is visible from Colorado. The eclipse begins almost imperceptibly at 9:55 PM MDT on March 13, when the southeastern edge of the Moon first touches the partial shade of Earth’s penumbral shadow. An astronaut on the Moon, standing within the penumbra, would see a partial eclipse of the Sun by the Earth. The real action begins at 11:09 PM MDT, when the Moon starts moving into Earth’s darker, umbral shadow. Through binoculars, the edge of the umbra looks ragged, rather than sharp. That’s due to clouds and other features of Earth’s atmosphere. Our lunar astronaut, standing within the umbra, would see a total eclipse of the Sun by the Earth! How cool would that be!? At about 12:25 AM MDT the entire Moon becomes immersed in the umbra, and the Moon glows with an ashen, reddish light until 1:32 AM MDT, when the total phase of the eclipse ends. The reddish hue is caused by sunlight that is bent by Earth’s atmosphere into the umbra. During totality, we see the effects of countless reddish sunsets and sunrises around the periphery of the Earth as reflected from the Moon. The brightness and color of the Moon during lunar eclipses varies due to the state of Earth’s atmosphere, eclipse geometry, and other factors. Some of the darkest lunar eclipses have occurred after volcanic eruptions lofted volcanic ash into Earth’s stratosphere.
Lunar eclipses always occur at full Moon and are visible from the entire nightside of the Earth. But lunar eclipses don’t happen at every full Moon. Usually, the Moon misses Earth’s shadow, passing either north or south. That’s because the Moon’s orbit of Earth is inclined 5 degrees to Earth’s orbit about the Sun. Eclipses happen only when the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon are aligned. In 2025, such alignments occur during March and September. Of this year’s 2 lunar and 2 solar eclipses, the March lunar eclipse is the only one that’s visible from Colorado. Let’s hope for clear skies on the night of March 13 to 14, so we can enjoy a spellbinding lunar eclipse experience!
Music written and produced by Kenny Mihelich (ma-HELL-itch). Western Slope Skies is produced by the Colorado Mesa University Astronomy Club, the Western Slope Dark Sky Coalition, and KVNF Community Radio. This feature was written and voiced by Art Trevena.
