A rare phenomenon is set to light up the night sky with a deep shade of red reflecting off the moon.
Known as a ‘blood moon’, people from all over the world are set to witness a total lunar eclipse tonight (March 13).
It is the first complete lunar eclipse to have taken place since 2022, and it occurs when Earth sits directly between the sun and the moon – and due to its orbit it happens around every two and a half years.
Explaining why it happens, Professor Don Pollacco, of University of Warwick Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, said: “The Moon, like all planets, gives out no light of its own, but instead shines by reflecting sunlight.
“On the morning of Friday 14th March [for residents in the UK], the moon during its monthly orbit of the Earth will pass through the Earth’s shadow.
“During this period as sunlight can no longer reach the Moon you might expect it to be invisible but instead a small amount of sunlight reaches the Moon after passing through the Earth’s atmosphere and this light is then reflected off the lunar surface making it visible to us on Earth.”
Pollacco continued: “As the sunlight travels through our atmosphere on its way to the Moon the redder wavelengths pass through relatively unhindered while the bluer wavelengths are scattered by dust suspended in the earth’s atmosphere.
“The red light reaches the moon and is then reflected back to us. So, the redness of the moon actually tells us about the conditions in our atmosphere.”
Where and when you can see the blood moon
In the US, visibility of the ‘blood moon’ should begin just before 12pm ET, and last into the early morning tomorrow (March 14) – although it won’t take full effect until around 1am ET.
Pollacco said that while this eclipse is best seen from this side of the Atlantic, observers on the western side of the UK will see the total phase start before morning twilight at about 4am when the Moon is low in the western sky.
He added: “From the rest of the UK the eclipse will not be total but should still be a striking spectacle. The best time to see the eclipse will be sometime after 5am and before the sky gets too bright. The full moon often looks larger when near the horizon, so this eclipse could look impressive.”
So there we go, the blood moon will be much more visible in the US than the UK.