Lunar eclipse coming this week: How to see it
The last time Ohio saw a total lunar eclipse was in November 2022, which is a much more common sight to see than a solar eclipse. While solar eclipses occur as often as lunar eclipses, the latter's shadow covers more space.
A total lunar eclipse will be visible in March: How and when to watch
Just like a solar eclipse, the lunar eclipse involves the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon, but in a different order.
'You've got the earth passing between the sun and the moon so that the earth is casting a shadow back on the moon's surface,' said Wes Ryle, astronomer at Cincinnati Observatory. 'And in the case of a total lunar eclipse, like what we're going to have coming up, that means that the moon will kind of appear to be, you know, blacked out as the moon drifts into the earth's shadow.'
When totality occurs in a lunar eclipse, darkness doesn't set in, in part due to the sun and our atmosphere. Instead, the moon appears to turn red.
'Sometimes people refer to it as the blood moon. And that's because light from Earth's atmosphere is actually being bent back refracted onto the moon's surface,' said Ryle. 'It appears red because of the same reason that sunrises or sunsets appear red on the earth.'
Why is the moon turning red in March?
You will have to stay up past your bedtime Thursday night to see this cool phenomenon. The lunar eclipse will begin just after midnight on March 14.
'The visible portion of the eclipse where the moon passes into the darkest part of the earth's shadow. That's going to start right around 1:09 a.m.,' said Ryle. 'And then it'll enter the totality. The point where it'll be appearing, that kind of reddish color that starts right around 2:26 a.m.'
NASA and private companies have lunar payloads on the moon, where they will be taking photos of the event, which from their point of view will be a solar eclipse.
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