Sky & Telescope - March 2025 - 48

West
East
LUNAR ECLIPSE IMAGES: BOB KING; LUNAR ECLIPSE DIAGRAM: LEAH TISCIONE / S&T, SOURCE: FRED ESPENAK
MARCH 2025 OBSERVING
Celestial Calendar by Bob King
A Long-Awaited Lunar Eclipse
L
ike hands and feet, eclipses come in
pairs. During the month of March
we'll experience a total lunar eclipse
followed by a partial solar eclipse. Both
are visible in North America although
the latter will be limited to a few locations
along the East Coast.
The Moon's orbit is tilted by about 5°
to the ecliptic, the plane of Earth's orbit
around the Sun. As the Moon revolves
around our planet it alternately dips
above and below that plane, intersecting
it at two points called nodes. For a
lunar eclipse to occur, the Moon must
be full at the same time it crosses a
node. When these circumstances are
met the Sun, Earth, and Moon neatly
line up in that order, and the Moon
passes through our planet's shadow as
it does on the night of March 13-14.
At new Moon, two weeks later, it cuts
through that plane again, but this time
it passes between the Earth and Sun,
generating a solar eclipse.
Observers across the Americas have
the best seats in the house for the lunar
eclipse. All 50 U.S. states will see the
entire event, though western Alaska and
Hawai'i miss the start of the penumbral
phase. The partial eclipse begins
at 1:09 a.m. EDT on March 14th, with
totality lasting from 2:26 a.m. to 3:32
a.m. EDT. Mid-eclipse occurs at 2:59
a.m. EDT. From the West Coast, the
48 MARCH 2025 * SKY & TELESCOPE
partial phase begins at 10:09 p.m. PDT
on the 13th, with mid-eclipse occurring
almost exactly at midnight, at 11:59 p.m.
PDT. Western European observers will
see the totally eclipsed Moon setting in
morning twilight, while on the other
side of the world, New Zealanders get to
watch the Moon rise totally eclipsed.
This won't be a particularly deep
eclipse because the entire lunar disk
misses the center of Earth's umbral
shadow. During totality we should
expect to see the northern portion of
the Moon glow brighter than the southern
due to the former's proximity to the
Total Lunar Eclipse
March 14, 2025
Mideclipse
6:59
UT
Moon
leaves
penumbra
10:02 UT
(unobservable)
Total
eclipse
ends
7:32 UT
U
Partial
eclipse
ends
8:48 UT
Partial
eclipse
begins
5:09 UT
North
Total
eclipse
begins
6:26 UT
Moon enters
penumbra
3:56 UT
(unobservable)
This month Earth's umbral shadow covers the Moon for the first time since 2022.
pThis set of photos from the most recent total
lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022, show the
Moon shortly before totality (right), during totality
(center), and shortly after (left).
umbral shadow's northern edge.
En route to the umbra, the Moon
passes through Earth's outer shadow,
called the penumbra. Here, sunlight and
shadow mix to produce a filmy, gray
shading across the lunar disk. Watch
for the penumbral shadow to become
noticeable along the southeastern (sky
direction) portion of the lunar disk
starting around 4:30 UT. During the
September 2024 partial lunar eclipse,
South
Ecliptic
B
M
P
E
M
N
U
Moon's
path
B
R
A
R
A

Sky & Telescope - March 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - March 2025