Let’s hope for clear skies on the morning of March 3, when the Western Slope will be treated to a total lunar eclipse. During the early hours of March 3, the Moon will move through Earth’s shadow, creating one of the more eerie sights in nature.
The eclipse begins almost imperceptibly at 1:42 AM MST, when the eastern 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. But the real action begins at 2:49 AM MST, when the Moon starts moving into Earth’s darker, umbral shadow. Through binoculars, the edge of the dark 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! That would be amazing! At 4:03 AM MST the entire Moon becomes immersed in the umbra, and the Moon glows with an ashen, reddish light until 5:02 AM MST, when the total 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. Very dark lunar eclipses in 1963, 1982, and 1992 occurred shortly after volcanoes lofted ash and sulfur dioxide into Earth’s stratosphere. From 5:02 AM to 6:17 AM MST, the Moon again will be partially eclipsed, as morning twilight begins. The partial eclipse ends with the Moon low in the west, about 25 minutes before moonset on the Western Slope.
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 2026, such alignments occur from late February into early March and during August. Of this year’s 2 lunar and 2 solar eclipses, only the March 3 total lunar eclipse and the August 27 partial lunar eclipse are visible from Colorado. Again, let’s hope for clear skies on the morning of March 3, so we can enjoy a spellbinding lunar eclipse experience!