Tag: Eclipses

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A quick guide to the total lunar eclipse — and the weather

Three views of total lunar eclipse from March 14, 2025
A photo sequence shows the total lunar eclipse of March 14, 2025. (Sky & Telescope Photo / Edwin L. Aguirre and Imelda B. Joson).

Tonight’s full moon will turn into a red moon during the last total lunar eclipse we’ll be able to see for the next two years — but whether we’ll truly be able to see it with our own eyes depends on the weather. And that’s an iffy proposition for Pacific Northwest skywatchers.

The good news is that total lunar eclipses, unlike a total solar eclipse, can be seen from an entire hemisphere at a time. They occur when the orbital mechanics are just right for Earth to pass directly between the moon and the sun. For about an hour, Earth’s shadow blots out the sun’s rays, except for reddish wavelengths that are refracted by our planet’s atmosphere. That’s what lends the moon its blood-red color.

Tonight’s eclipse begins with a barely discernable penumbral phase at around 1:30 a.m. PT Tuesday, gets into its partial phase at 1:50 a.m. and enters totality at 3:04 a.m. The eclipse’s total phase ends at 4:03 a.m., and the partial phase winds down over the following hour or two.

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Cosmic Space

Get ready to see a total lunar eclipse (or maybe not)

Time-lapse sequence of total lunar eclipse of Sept. 28, 2015
This sequence shows the end-to-end progression of a total lunar eclipse on Sept. 28, 2015. (Credit: Sean Walker via Sky & Telescope)

The first total lunar eclipse since 2022 will turn the full moon an eerie shade of red on the night of March 13-14 — but your chances of seeing it with your own eyes will depend on where you are.

North Americans should have great seats for the eclipse this time around. The key phases of the show, from the time the moon begins to enter the darkest part of Earth’s shadow to the time it leaves, should be visible to the entire continent.

But add some emphasis to the word “should.” In order to see the darkened moon with your own eyes, the skies have to be clear.

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Eclipse chasers take three different routes to totality

Diamond-ring effect before total solar eclipse
A diamond-ring effect is visible just before the beginning of a total solar eclipse, as seen from Arkansas. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

NASHVILLE, Ind. — There’s nothing like a total solar eclipse to remind you of the unstoppability of nature — and the tenuousness of technology.

Not that we need much of a reminder: The challenges of climate change, ranging from floods to wildfires, and the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic amply show the limits of humanity’s control over nature.

But chasing totality is a more benign example showing just how hard it is to predict which paths Mother Nature will take, and how technology may or may not catch up.

It was tricky to pinpoint the best place to see today’s total eclipse, because totality was visible only along a narrow track stretching from Mexico to Newfoundland, for no more than four and a half minutes over any location. If clouds roll in at 3:04 p.m., and totality begins at 3:05, there’s nothing OpenAI or SpaceX can do about it.

Based on historical precedent, a stretch of Texas around Austin was supposed to have the best chance of clear skies. Here in Nashville, a well-known tourist destination south of Indianapolis, the cloud-cover predictions varied from totally sunny to as much as 60% clouded over. Meanwhile, some air travelers hoped to catch sight of the blacked-out sun as they flew above the clouds. How did it all turn out? Check out three tales from GeekWire’s eclipse team.

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Your (nearly) last-minute guide to the solar eclipse

Seattle eclipse-watchers wearing protective glasses in 2017
Eclipse watchers at Kerry Park in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood in 2017. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

It’s prime time for eclipse-chasers: A total solar eclipse will trace a line from coast to coast on Monday, and the anticipation is at its peak. So are the travel costs.

Hard-core eclipse fans made their travel arrangements long ago. That was also the case back in 2017, when a similar all-American solar eclipse turned central Oregon into one of the nation’s hottest hotspots (made even hotter by that summer’s wildfires). Witnessing a total solar eclipse in person is something everyone ought to do at least once in their life, and if you want to get in on the experience this time around, it’s still possible.

I should know: That’s exactly what I’m doing.

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Totally cool! Three options for seeing the solar eclipse

Skywatchers track the progress of 2017's solar eclipse at Seattle's Gas Works Park. (GeekWire Photo)

After a seven-year gap, a total solar eclipse is once again due to make a coast-to-coast run across North America, boosting popular interest (and airfares) to astronomical proportions.

The track of totality for the April 8 eclipse doesn’t come anywhere close to the Pacific Northwest. That’s in contrast to the 2017 total solar eclipse, when the moon’s shadow crossed the Oregon coast to begin its continent-spanning sweep.

You can still get in on the thrill of the event. It’s not too late to book a last-minute trip to someplace within driving distance of the total eclipse’s path, which stretches from Mexico up through Texas and the Midwest to the northeastern U.S. and Atlantic Canada. It’s just going to cost you.

Outside the track of totality, a partial solar eclipse will be visible throughout Canada, Mexico and the Lower 48 states. That’s assuming skies are clear, which is nowhere near a sure thing for the Pacific Northwest in April. Even if the sun is visible, you’ll want to make sure you see the eclipse safely.

There’s one almost surefire way to catch totality, and that’s to watch it online. It’s no substitute for experiencing darkness at midday in person, but it’s a no-muss, no-fuss, low-cost way to get in on the action. And it might well whet your appetite for the next eclipse opportunity.

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How to see the total lunar eclipse in the sky and online

Nov. 8 total lunar eclipse phases in Pacific Time.
This graphic shows the phases of the Nov. 8 total lunar eclipse in Pacific Time. (NASA / GSFC SVS)

If you’re on the West Coast, watching tonight’s total lunar eclipse will require a willingness to stay awake in the middle of the night — plus a lucky break on the weather.

But maybe it’s worth taking a chance: The next opportunity to take in the sight of a blood-red, eclipsed moon won’t come until 2025. And even if it’s cloudy, you can hedge your bets by tuning in NASA’s live stream of the event.

Lunar eclipses occur when Earth and the moon are positioned such that our planet blocks out the sunlight falling on the lunar surface. During a partial eclipse, only a portion of the moon goes dark. Totality occurs when the moon passes directly through the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, known as the umbra.

The partial phase of tonight’s eclipse begins at 1:44 a.m. Tuesday, with totality lasting from 2:17 to 3:42 a.m. During the total phase, the only light falling on the moon’s near side will come from the reddish light refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. Put more poetically, it’s the light from countless sunrises and sunsets.

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How to make the most of the Supermoon eclipse

Lunar eclipse
Surrounded by stars, the eclipsed moon turns red over Mount Baker in 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

The only total lunar eclipse of 2021 will also be one of the shortest total lunar eclipses in recent years, lasting just less than 15 minutes. And it’s not exactly the easiest one to see in the Seattle area, due to its timing as well as the weather.

Earth’s shadow will start creeping across the full moon’s disk at 1:47 a.m. PT on May 26, and the eclipse will reach totality at 4:11 a.m. Because this particular eclipse has the moon passing so close to the edge of Earth’s umbra — that is, the shadow’s darkest part — the moon starts brightening up again at 4:25 a.m. in the dawn’s early light.

The forecast for Western Washington poses even more of a challenge for skywatchers. “Conditions not looking favorable at this time,” the National Weather Service’s Seattle bureau told me in a tweet. Even if it’s not actually raining, overcast skies could well spoil the view.

“Best advice at this time is to a) get some elevation above low clouds or b) go east of the Cascade crest,” forecasters said.

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Cosmic Space

How to watch the pandemic solar eclipse online

2017 total solar eclipse
Just a glimmer of the sun is visible in this view of the 2017 total solar eclipse as seen from Oregon. (NASA Photo / Gopalswamy)

Total solar eclipses are typically magnets for world travelers with a scientific bent — but when it comes to the eclipse that’ll be visible from Chile and Argentina on Dec. 14, the coronavirus pandemic has put a damper on the dreams of eclipse-chasers.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to see the solar eclipse online, and this way at least you don’t have to worry about hurting your eyes.

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Cosmic Space

Hubble uses eclipse to practice hunt for alien life

Hubble and lunar eclipse
An illustration shows the Hubble Space Telescope against the background of a total lunar eclipse. (NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser)

Astronomers made use of the Hubble Space Telescope — and a total lunar eclipse — to rehearse their routine for seeking signs of life in alien atmospheres.

You’ll be relieved to know that the experiment, conducted on Jan. 20-21, 2019, determined that there are indeed signs of life on Earth.

The evidence came in the form of a strong spectral fingerprint for ozone. To detect that ultraviolet fingerprint, Hubble didn’t look at Earth directly. Instead, it analyzed the dim reddish light that was first refracted by Earth’s atmosphere, and then reflected back by the moon during last year’s lunar eclipse.

“Finding ozone is significant because it is a photochemical byproduct of molecular oxygen, which is itself a byproduct of life,” said Allison Youngblood of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colo., lead researcher of Hubble’s observations.

Other ground-based telescopes made spectroscopic observations at other wavelengths during the eclipse. They were looking for the fingerprints of different atmospheric ingredients linked to life’s presence, such as oxygen and methane.

This wasn’t just an academic exercise. Astronomers hope future observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Roman Space Telescope, will be able to detect life’s fingerprints in the atmospheres of faraway exoplanets. But that takes practice.

“One of NASA’s major goals is to identify planets that could support life,” Youngblood said in a Hubble news release. “But how would we know a habitable or an uninhabited planet if we saw one? What would they look like with the techniques that astronomers have at their disposal for characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets? That’s why it’s important to develop models of Earth’s spectrum as a template for categorizing atmospheres on extrasolar planets.”

Check out the news release for further details, or delve into the research paper published today in The Astronomical Journal. And to learn more about how lunar eclipses work, check out this “Inconstant Moon” interactive (after you enable Flash in your browser).

This report was published on Cosmic Log. Accept no substitutes.

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Meteor impacts spotted during lunar eclipse

It’s pretty clear by now that a space rock ranging somewhere in size between an acorn and a football hit the darkened moon during Jan. 20’s total lunar eclipse. But were there two?

Confirmations of the first impact, and reports about the second, have been circulating through the scientific community and the Twitterverse over the past couple of days.

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