TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE / BLOOD MOON! - 03/03/2026

Get ready for an amazing sight in the sky this Tuesday! On the 3rd of March (weather permitting) we will be treated to views of the full Moon. But not only this! On the same day a very special celestial event will take place - a Total Lunar Eclipse (aka a “Blood Moon”)!

Where you live in the world will determine how much of the eclipse you can witness and unfortunately for those in Europe and Africa the eclipse will not be visible as the Moon will be below the horizon.

This March’s eclipse will be visible to those lucky enough to be in America, the Pacific, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

This special celestial event will be an amazing sight for those lucky enough to be able to witness it and will definitely be worth heading out for!

For those in Europe and Africa that were hoping to observe the eclipse, don’t worry! You can observe the eclipse by tuning into a stream of the event online.

If you would like to know more about the total lunar eclipse including what is a lunar eclipse, why they are rare events, when the eclipse will occur, links for online streams of the eclipse, plus tips on how best to view the eclipse, please read on…

A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth stands directly between the Moon and the Sun, which results in the Earth casting its shadow on the Moon.

The Earth casts a faint outer shadow called the Penumbra and a darker central shadow called the Umbra (see diagram below).

When the Moon enters the Penumbra this is known as a Penumbral lunar eclipse. However, as the Penumbral shadow is very faint, it is very hard to discern a change in the Moon during a penumbral eclipse.

A partial lunar eclipse is when the Moon partially enters the Earth’s umbral shadow and the portion of the Moon that is within the Umbra will discernibly appear darker than the rest of it’s surface.

During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon is fully covered by Earth’s umbral shadow, making the Moon appear much darker than usual and giving the Moon a reddish hue. The phenomenon of the Moon appearing red in colour is where the term ‘Blood Moon’ comes from.

The Moon appears red during a Lunar eclipse due to an effect caused by the Earth’s atmosphere.

Light travelling near the edge of our planet is refracted (bent) to partly infill the Umbra (some light is bent into the Earth’s shadow).

Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light (which creates our blue skies in the daytime). This means the light that passes through the atmosphere and infills the umbra, tends to be towards the redder end of the light spectrum. This gives the umbral shadow its red / orange colour.

When the Moon enters the Umbra it is being illuminated by only this refracted red light, causing it to appear red.

Please see the attached diagram that can help visualise what the eclipse will look like.

The reason why a Lunar Eclipse doesn’t occur every month is because the Earth and Moon travel along slightly different orbital planes. Because the Moon's orbit around the Earth is inclined by around 5 degrees to Earth’s orbit around the Sun, it will often pass just above, or just below Earth's orbital plane. This means, that for the majority of the time, this small angle is enough to allow the Moon to miss the shadow cast by the Earth. It is only when there is a straight line alignment between the Sun, Earth and Moon that a lunar eclipse occurs.

If the Moon travelled along exactly the same plane as the Earth, it would result in a lunar and solar eclipse every full Moon and new Moon phase of the lunar cycle.

08:44 UTC – Penumbral eclipse begins (the Moon enters the Earth’s faint outer shadow)

09:50 UTC – Partial eclipse begins (the Moon enters the Earth’s umbral shadow and begins to discernibly darken)

11:04 UTC – Total eclipse begins (the full surface of the Moon is covered by the Earth’s umbral shadow)

11:34 UTC – Maximum eclipse (the Moon is deepest within the Earth’s shadow)

12:03 UTC – Total eclipse ends (the Moon begins to leave the umbral shadow)

13:17 UTC – Partial eclipse ends (the Moon completely leaves the Umbra and begins to leave the Penumbra)

14:23 UTC – Penumbral eclipse ends (the Moon completely leaves the Penumbra)

The timings listed above are given in UTC, and local timings will be different for your location.

The March total lunar eclipse will be best viewed from Western North America, Eastern Asia, Eastern Australia, New Zealand and in the Pacific Ocean. These locations will be able to view the eclipse in its entirety from start to finish.

Please see the attached diagram that shows what stages of the eclipse can be viewed from different locations.

Don’t worry if you aren’t lucky enough to be able to observe the eclipse in person, there are many different institutions that will be streaming this special event online. You can watch the event by using one of these links:

Griffith Observatory - https://www.youtube.com/live/JeOlqcK5Edg?si=oazSh3t8yE-XDS2y

NASA - https://youtu.be/MSfaHtof65M?si=RvbK7tWzQZiFngmT

Time and Date - https://www.youtube.com/live/TywJ47LZ-Ic?si=lkGCB8yjMgxs98bX

Virtual Telescope Project - https://www.youtube.com/live/XQLcLAfilkQ?si=7masTTRK0lZWK5y1

An artificial reality astronomy app that shows you the Moon’s location on your smartphone can help you know where to look.

A pair of binoculars or a telescope will help you observe the eclipse in more detail.

If you would like to know more about the rest of the celestial treats that can be seen throughout March, please head to our YouTube channel to watch our Night Sky Guide video for March 2026.

https://youtu.be/IYlxp9_UHb8

We always love hearing about your celestial adventures and seeing your photographs! If you head out to witness or capture photographs of this event or any other sights in the night sky, please feel free to share your stories and photos in the comments below.

This total lunar eclipse will be a very special event, and if you are able to, we recommend heading out to try and witness this total lunar eclipse.

If you do head out to enjoy the lunar eclipse or to enjoy the night sky at any point in the near future, we wish you good luck and clear skies!

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