Turn your eyes to the sky this week to catch a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse. This lunar spectacle will feature a “blood moon,” named for the reddish color that will appear on the moon.
The eclipse will happen the night of Thursday, March 13, into the morning of Friday, March 14. In the eastern time zone, the partial eclipse will begin around 1:09 a.m. Friday, reaching totality from 2:26 a.m. to 3:31 a.m. The partial eclipse will remain until about 4:47 a.m.
You won’t need any special equipment to see the eclipse, and it should be completely visible to all of the United States. Of course, if clouds roll in, visibility may be obstructed.
A lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Earth, and moon align so that the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. It’s considered a full lunar eclipse when all of the moon falls into the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, called the umbra, which can cast a red-orange color across the moon.
You may also hear it referred to as a “blood moon worm.” The phrase “worm moon” refers to a full moon that happens in March, according to the Farmer’s Almanac — in fact, every full moon used to have a name associated with the month in which it appeared.
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
